Sobriety program linked to decreased mortality
The 24/7 Sobriety program, launched in South Dakota in 2005, was associated with a 4.2-percent decrease in all-cause mortality over six years; the largest reductions occurred among women and individuals over the age of 40. Deaths from circulatory conditions, which include heart disease and stroke, declined significantly.
The criminal justice program requires offenders convicted of alcohol-related offenses to stop drinking and to submit to frequent alcohol testing with swift, certain, and modest sanctions for a violation. The program was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The analysis of the program was conducted by Nancy Nicosia, Ph.D.; Beau Kilmer, Ph.D.; and Paul Heaton, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation. Results appear online in The Lancet Psychiatry.
As part of the 24/7 Sobriety Program, people convicted of an alcohol-related offense must submit to twice-a-day breathalyzer tests or wear a continuous alcohol-monitoring bracelet. People who fail or skip tests immediately receive a short jail term, typically one to two days for a failed test. Nearly three percent of South Dakota’s adult population (about 17,000 people) participated in 24/7 Sobriety between January 2005 and June 2011. Most people were placed in the program as a result of an arrest and conviction of driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
24/7 Sobriety represents a promising alternate approach to preventing drunk driving. While other criminal justice interventions often focus on separating drinking and driving, 24/7 Sobriety attempts to manage the drinking itself. Technological advances such as remote alcohol monitoring in real time, coupled with the ability to transmit data electronically, are creating greater possibilities for these newer approaches. This NIH News Release is available online at: http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/criminal-justice-alcohol-program-linked-decreased-mortality.
DHS establishes Countering Violent Extremism Task Force
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has announced the establishment of an interagency Countering Violent Extremism Task Force (CVETF). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Community Partnerships, Johnson explains, has been building relationships and promoting trust with communities across the country exploring innovative ways to support those who are working to discourage violent extremism and undercut terrorist narratives. The new CVETF, which will be hosted by the DHS, Johnson notes, “will bring together the best resources and personnel from across the executive branch to ensure that we face the challenge of violent extremism in a unified and coordinated way.”
The efforts of ISIL and other groups to radicalize American citizens have made it necessary for the U.S. Government to update its efforts that began in the summer of 2015 when representatives from 11 departments and agencies reviewed the nation’s current structure, strategy, and programs; identified gaps in implementation; and made concrete recommendations for improvement, Johnson says. The CVETF will coordinate government efforts and partnerships to prevent violent extremism in the United States.
The 2015 review team identified the following four key needs: (1) an infrastructure to coordinate and prioritize CVE activities; (2) clear responsibility, accountability, and communication across government and with the public; (3) participation of relevant departments and agencies outside of national security lanes; and (4) a process to assess, prioritize, and allocate resources to maximize impact.
The DHS and the Department of Justice, with additional staffing provided by representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Counterterrorism Center, and other supporting departments and agencies, will lead the task force, which will be administratively housed at the DHS. The CVETF will organize federal efforts into the following areas:
- Research and Analysis. Coordinate federal support for ongoing and future CVE research and establish feedback mechanisms for CVE findings, thus cultivating CVE programming that incorporates sound results.
- Engagements and Technical Assistance. Synchronize federal government outreach to and engagement with CVE stakeholders and coordinate technical assistance to CVE practitioners.
- Communications. Manage CVE communications, including media inquiries, and leverage digital technologies to engage, empower, and connect CVE stakeholders.
- Interventions. Work with CVE stake-holders to develop multidisciplinary intervention programs.
Additional information is available at http://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/01/08/countering-violent- extremism-task-force.
Volunteer fire service saves New Yorkers $3 billion plus
New Yorkers save more than $3 billion each year as a result of the services provided by the state’s volunteer fire service, says the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY). The information appears in the Tax Savings and Economic Value of Volunteer Firefighters in New York State study, prepared by the ERS Group.
The report also states that adding more volunteer firefighters through funding from Federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants has effected lower response times across the state. New York State has recruited approximately 20,000 volunteer firefighters over the course of FASNY’s SAFER grant period, 2011-2015.
Among the findings in the report are the following:
- New York State’s nearly 100,000 volunteer firefighters save taxpayers $3.87 billion every year in salary and benefits and potential debt service.
- If New York State were to switch to an all-paid fire service, an additional 30,822 firefighters would have to be hired and more than 1,300 stations would have to be built or reconstructed. Also, property taxes across the state would rise an average of 25.5 percent; the raise would vary from 3.3 percent to 123 percent, depending on the county.
The full report is at www.fasny.com/economicstudy.
ERS analyzed the state’s paid and volunteer fire departments, except those in New York City, for the report.
Training guidelines proposed for 911 telecommunicators
A group of 911 industry organizations has been developing minimum training guidelines for the nation’s 911 call takers and dispatchers. Members of these organizations and other key stakeholders in the 911 community selected the topics to be included in the guidelines.
The recommended topics, which include the following, are intended to give aspiring and current 911 telecommunicators (call takers and dispatchers) nationally recognized and universally accepted minimum training that will form the foundation for ongoing professional development, according to Nathan Lee, president of the Denise Amber Lee Foundation:
- Telecommunicator roles and responsibilities
- 911 call processing
- Radio communications
- Emergency management
- Emergency communications technology
- Legal concepts
- Interpersonal communications
- Stress management
- Quality assurance
- On-the-job training.
In addition, telecommunicators must receive supplemental training in processing discipline-specific emergency calls fielded by their respective public safety answering point or emergency services provider.
The 911 community-at-large will review and comment on the recommended minimum training guidelines, which are anticipated to be finalized for distribution to public safety and emergency response agencies before the end of 2016.
A parallel goal is to develop model legislation that can be used in states that do not already have legislation in this area. For states that have legislation, the model legislation is intended as a baseline to ensure that the recommended topics listed above are being covered. These guidelines are not federally mandated.
WHO: Zika virus poses global health threat
The Zika virus disease (ZVD) outbreak that, at press time, had included some 35 countries, including the United States, has raised serious questions among health professionals and agencies worldwide. The virus is carried by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Most who contract this virus do not have any symptoms. About one-fifth of those infected may experience symptoms of fever, rash, joint pains, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The disease is usually mild.
On February 1, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/en/)(the same category as Ebola). American health authorities issued a travel advisory for pregnant women planning to visit Brazil or many other countries in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Coincidental to the appearance of this virus was that some 4,000 babies in Brazil (at press time, Brazil was the only area where microcephaly cases have been reported), where this virus was first reported, were reported to be born with severe birth defects, including microcephaly (small head). No direct link (cause and effect) has been identified between these births and the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden says there is no definitive proof that microcephaly and associated birth defects are caused by ZVD. While this issue is being investigated, out of an abundance of caution, American health authorities issued the travel advisory for pregnant women.
In the United States, it was reported that in Dallas, Texas, a man who had visited one of the areas where the virus was prevalent transmitted the virus to his female sexual partner, which prompted some health authorities to warn that men who had been exposed to Zika abstain from sex with a partner who might be pregnant.
Additional information on ZVD is available at http://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html.
AWC: ICC approves Tall Wood Ad Hoc Committee
American Wood Council (AWC) Vice President Kenneth Bland, P.E., advises that the International Code Council (ICC) board of directors has approved the establishment of a Tall Wood Ad Hoc Committee. The AWC had petitioned the ICC for the committee to research the building science of tall wood buildings.
According to Bland, “The committee will be made up of stakeholders, code officials, and other interested parties; will study tall wood construction; and may develop code changes to be submitted for the 2021 International Building Code.”
“Tall wood” is an industry term to identify the use of cross-laminated timber and other heavy-timber manufactured wood products in building heights greater than six stories.
PPE: How Clean Is Clean? New Research Aims to Find Out
By Casey Grant, Fire Protection Research Foundation; Jeffrey O. Stull , International Personnel Protection, Inc.; and Tim Tomlinson, Addison (TX) Fire Department/Gear Cleaning Solutions
Are you protected, and are you sure? Every day you are at risk on the job for exposure to a wide range of toxic chemicals, biological pathogens, and other hazardous substances. Sometimes the only thing between you and these threats is your personal protective equipment (PPE).
Research has repeatedly demonstrated that persistent contaminants are found in firefighter PPE following emergency responses. Continued exposure to many of these contaminants can pose significant risks to firefighters’ immediate and long-term health, with cancer becoming a leading concern for firefighter health that’s presumably linked to fireground exposures and associated resulting PPE contamination.
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| (1) Firefighter clothing becomes discolored or soiled with a variety of fireground substances, including soot, debris, and a variety of liquids. These soils potentially contain a large variety of persistent contaminants that remain in the clothing. (Photos courtesy of Gear Cleaning Solutions.) |
Knowing these dangers, how can you best rid PPE of these contaminants? And how clean does your PPE need to be to keep you safe? While definitive answers are still unknown, the research project launched by the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), in coordination with key organizational partners is working to get those answers.
“The ultimate goal of this project is to find out whether existing practices are truly removing those contaminants from PPE so we can better protect firefighters from related risks,” said Casey Grant, executive director of the Research Foundation, who noted that recent incidents like the Ebola outbreak only reinforce that we don’t know what it takes scientifically to remove airborne and bloodborne pathogens from firefighter clothing.
Groundwork
Initial work on addressing these issues started with the appointment of a task group in late 2013 under the NFPA Technical Committee on Structural and Proximity Fire Fighting Protective Clothing and Equipment responsible for NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. The task group was commissioned to improve the guidelines in NFPA 1851 for properly cleaning and disinfecting firefighter PPE and worked for nearly a year to formulate a research prospectus that would address whether the current cleaning specifications in NFPA 1851 remove persistent contamination.
The task group’s work involved a literature search on previous efforts to study processes for clothing contamination and contaminant removal effectiveness, along with collaborative discussions among PPE representatives on how the upcoming research should be conducted and, more specifically, what questions needed to be answered.
Nearly one year later, the task group turned over its completed prospectus to the Research Foundation, which was able to quickly propel the project forward with funding by a consortia of organizations that would undertake an initial portion of the overall project. Efforts began in mid-2015 to address preliminary elements of the global contamination issue with the award of a small contract to Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc. (“Intertek”), a leading national laboratory for the testing of firefighter protective clothing and equipment. Its work focused on gathering information to identify persistent chemical contaminants in firefighter PPE and how these contaminants can best be characterized using appropriate sampling and analytical methods.
Three-Year Research Project
Later in 2015, an important transformation occurred that put in place the needed resources to more fully address the wide scope and a complexity of the research effort: The Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) awarded nearly $900,000 to the Research Foundation. This enabled the Foundation to launch a three-year research project that would characterize the key persistent contaminants that pose a health threat to firefighters and to develop the tools to measure the effectiveness of different cleaning processes that adequately remove those contaminants.
A large part of the incentive for this effort came from the understanding that the current procedures established in the NFPA 1851 standard are too general to give fire departments enough guidance in cleaning their turnout clothing and that there are no methods to validate the decontamination effectiveness for specific cleaning processes, detergents, disinfectants, or other cleaning practices in their ability to address hazardous chemical substances or various biological pathogens. It has become clear that more research is needed to support, clarify, and enhance the requirements and supporting information provided in NFPA 1851.
The project is being conducted in coordination with multiple partners, including several groups within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which hosts one of the leading research facilities in the country.
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| (2) Conventional cleaning of turnout clothing in washer/extractors using industry practices may not remove all persistent contaminants. The Research Foundation is seeking to identify improvements to NFPA 1851 that will validate contaminant removal and determine optimum conditions for decontamination. |
Other project partners include Intertek, the current Research Foundation contractor for early research, and International Personnel Protection, Inc. (“IPP”). IPP performed some of the pioneer research in the area of firefighter clothing decontamination in the 1990s, including two major studies with the U.S. Fire Administration that showed the specific accumulation of contaminants and investigated how well conventional cleaning removed surrogate contaminants and the overall effects of repeated cleaning on clothing performance properties. Jeffrey O. Stull of IPP is providing the technical leadership in the project.
The project team is also working with current providers of firefighter clothing cleaning services and has established a diverse and well-represented panel of fire service stakeholders for technical advice. This advisory group includes Tim Tomlinson, the chairman for the NFPA 1851 task group for revising cleaning and disinfection procedures. He is a firefighter for the Addison (TX) Fire Department; a principal for Gear Cleaning Solutions, an independent service provider in the Dallas area; and a leading motivator for this research.
During the early stages of the project, the research team finalized a detailed approach for carrying out its investigation for validating cleaning methods and confirming the full range of contaminants that will be analyzed within that process. Specific attention was given to looking at the development of procedures that are portable and can be brought into the field to qualify cleaning processes at an independent service provider, fire department, or other organization. Another part of the research entails creating laboratory-based methods for contaminating clothing in a manner representing field exposures to more adequately address the way that firefighter clothing is contaminated. For example, Intertek has been working on developing an exposure chamber that coats materials with particles and chemicals from the passage of smoke created from a controlled burning of specific hazardous chemical fuels.
“The complexity of this project has required a great deal of upfront planning and preparation,” says Grant. “Now that the groundwork has been nearly completed, we’re entering the next phase of our work, which will focus on a considerable amount of actual testing.”
Moving forward, the study will refine the tools for evaluating different cleaning processes, start working to address separately biological contaminants, and conduct experiments that will enable the project team to develop specific guidance for all concerned with firefighter health and wellness. The overarching goal for the team will be to develop and generate specific requirements and best practices for adequately cleaning PPE among the fire service and independent service providers that can be included in the upcoming edition of NFPA 1851. The next revision of the NFPA 1851 standard is scheduled to be published within the next 21⁄2 years.
An update on the PPE cleaning project will be reported in the months ahead.
LINE-OF-DUTY DEATHS
2015
November 22. Firefighter Richard Cano, 35, Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, Houston, TX: cerebrovascular accident that occurred on November 22, 2015.
2016
January 18. Firefighter Scott D. Bruggeman, Middletown (OH) Division of Fire: injuries sustained in a heart attack while on duty in 2014.
January 22. Lieutenant Ronald Jason Adams, 29, East Pulaski County Fire Department, North Little Rock, AR: shot and killed by a patient at an emergency medical services call.
February 2. Firefighter James R. Varnell, 53, Bakertown Volunteer Fire Department, Elm City, NC: cause to be determined.
February 7. Chief Driver James J. Butler Jr., 50, Derby (CT) Fire Department – Paugassett Hook & Ladder Company #4: cause to be determined.
February 10. Lieutenant David W. Conley, 48, Olive Hill (KY) Fire Department: heart attack.
February 14. Assistant Chief Daniel F. Cool, 71, Jefferson County Fire Department #1 – Kaw, Grantville, KS: heart attack suffered on February 11.
Source: USFA Firefighters Memorial Database
Fire Engineering Archives
