Refinery firefighters: assessing fitness for duty.

Firefighting is a hazardous and physically demanding activity. The demanding nature of the tasks involved in firefighting requires a high level of fitness both for the safety of the firefighting personnel as well as for the adequate performance of their tasks. Here, the characteristics (body weight, lung function, etc.) of a small group of refinery firefighters were investigated using exploratory factor analysis and discriminant analysis. The results indicated that there is a group of factors that characterize those individuals meeting minimum fitness requirements as described previously in the literature. The factors that were identified included those related to anthropometry (such as body composition and weight) and those related to physical capabilities (such as push-ups). Since these data are collected relatively easily in most occupational settings, they may offer an efficient surrogate method to determine fitness for duty among firefighters.

An investigation of the effectiveness of police cruiser doors as protection from handgun attack.

The objective of this research was to investigate the degree to which automobile doors (especially police cruiser doors) may be used as protection by police officers when under handgun attack. This is a vital question, since the cruiser door is often the only defense a police officer has when encountering gunfire. Data were collected on door penetration capabilities of 3 calibers of handguns (selected based on FBI data on police officer assaults) at 2 different angles of fire. Results indicated that caliber has a significant effect, with the likelihood of penetration increasing with caliber. The oblique angle of fire (45 degrees) was somewhat less likely to penetrate than an orthogonal angle, although the difference was not significant. Overall, 68% of the rounds penetrated the door regardless of angle of fire or caliber.