Culture and awareness of occupational health risks amongst UK firefighters.
Sci Rep
; 13(1): 97, 2023 01 10.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36627294
ABSTRACT
Firefighters are exposed to toxic chemicals not only from the fire incidents they attend, but also from their contaminated station and/or personal protective equipment (PPE). Little is currently known about firefighters' awareness, attitudes, and behaviours towards contaminants which was assessed in the UK firefighter contamination survey. Results revealed that lack of training on fire effluents and their health outcomes are strongly associated with increased fire smoke/contaminant exposure. Notably, untrained firefighters were at least twice as likely to never clean personal protective equipment (PPE) (Crude Odds Ratio, OR 2.0, 1.5-2.7), infrequently send their PPE for professional cleaning (OR 2.0, 1.6-2.4), remain in the workwear (t-shirt etc.) worn while attending a fire incident (OR up to 3.6, 2.3-5.6), and indicate that cleaning at fire stations is not taken seriously (OR 2.4, 2.2-2.6). Firefighters personally viewing contamination as a "badge of honour" (BoH) were at least twice as likely to remain in contaminated PPE after fire incidents (OR 2.3, 1.4-3.9), eat with sooty hands (OR 2.2, 1.9-2.5), notice soot in the nose/throat (OR 3.7, 2.7-5.2), and smell fire smoke on the body for more than a day after incidents (OR 2.0, 1.6-2.4). They were also more likely to indicate that cleaning at fire stations is not taken seriously (OR 2.5, 2.2-2.9) and that fire stations smell of smoke always/most of the time (OR 2.3, 2.0-2.6). Strong links were also found between belief in the BoH and never cleaning PPE (OR 1.9, 1.4-2.7), and eating while wearing contaminated PPE (OR 1.8, 1.5-2.2).
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Exposición Profesional
/
Salud Laboral
/
Bomberos
Tipo de estudio:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sci Rep
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Reino Unido