Two UA Zuckerman College of Public Health graduate students working on environmental and occupational health issues were each awarded a $20,000 grant from UCLA’s Southern California NIOSH Education and Research Center to assess injury prevention and lung function in firefighters.

Injury Prevention Among Tucson Firefighters
Jerry Poplin, research specialist and PhD student in epidemiology, will develop a study that will assess ways to prevent injuries among City of Tucson firefighters. The pilot study will identify the work processes and job tasks that may put firefighters at higher risk for injuries.

“We hope to develop intervention strategies to prevent the injuries caused by these risks and make their jobs as safe as possible,” explains Poplin. “Reducing injury rates is a difficult challenge, particularly in high risk industries such as firefighting. These men and women deserve a great appreciation for the service they provide to the community.”

To find the root causes for injury, demographic, biometric and work attributes will be compared between injured and uninjured firefighters in Tucson for the years 2000-2005. Poplin hopes to have preliminary results of the analysis by late summer 2007.

Poplin recently conducted a similar study on the coal mining population and found that significant declines among injury rates coincided with the adoption of a risk management regulatory system. He also is working with wildland firefighters around the state, assessing for exposures to potentially harmful toxicants.

Lung Function in Retired Phoenix Firefighters
Jennifer Currie, senior research specialist and master of public health student in the environmental and occupational health concentration, will determine if declining lung function rates and smoke exposure in current firefighters may contribute to the subsequent development of lung disease in retired firefighters.

"Firefighters are exposed to products of combustion that can have acute and chronic effects on pulmonary function," explains Currie. "The respiratory health of firefighters is monitored regularly during their employment. However this monitoring generally does not continue into retirement, when the effects of reduced lung function are most likely to result in adverse respiratory symptoms."

Retired firefighters from the Phoenix Fire Department will be recruited to participate. Participants will be separated into two groups, those with average annual decline FEV1 exceeding 60 ml per year (accelerated rate of decline) and those with less rapid decline. Fifty retired firefighters with an accelerated rate of decline in lung function will be compared with 50 retirees with less rapid decline. Participating firefighters will undergo a medical screening session which will consist of a questionnaire and pulmonary function testing.

The study will determine estimates of occupational exposure through administrative records from the Phoenix Fire Department, including the number and types of fires fought along with percentages of time protective equipment was utilized.

Currie also hopes to have preliminary results by late summer 2007.