FEATURED IN
- Sirius XM to Feature EMS Segment
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Honors EMS Week
- FDA Says Xarelto Reduced Deadly Heart Attacks
- New York Patient Steals, Crashes Ambulance
- FDNY Unveils EMS Week 2012 Poster
- Audit Finds Slow EMS Responses in Los Angeles
- Man Trapped in Iowa Cave for 20 Hours Rescued
Firefighters take risks every day. Risks are inherent to the job. They’re necessary. Although today’s firefighters are protected by an array of modern, high-tech equipment and life-saving tools, the rate of “line of duty” firefighter deaths is alarming. The number one killer of firefighters is not fire … or building collapse … or explosions. It’s heart attack. And, evidence is mounting that a great contributor to firefighter strokes, heart attacks and heart disease comes from both acute and long-term exposure to carbon monoxide (CO).
CO. You can’t see it. You can’t smell it. Yet it can—and will—kill you. Having almost died from CO exposure myself, I can speak to CO’s insidious killing power. With all the necessary risks firefighters take on a daily basis, CO doesn’t have to be one of them. The greatest safety net a firefighter has on the fire ground is training. Train yourselves to look at CO differently. Education, on-the-job monitoring and regular medical check-ups will go a long way in reducing this unnecessary risk.
Motivate yourself to learn everything you can about CO so you’ll be around longer to do what you were born to do … fight fires and save lives.
