BACKGROUND Firefighters suffer from high prevalence of obesity, substandard fitness, and cardiovascular-related deaths. There have been a limited number of firefighter health promotion programs that have been developed and empirically-tested for this important occupational group. We evaluated the health of firefighters from departments with well-developed health promotion programs and compared ...

Study Objectives Firefighters' schedules include extended shifts and long work weeks which cause sleep deficiency and circadian rhythm disruption. Many firefighters also suffer from undiagnosed sleep disorders, exacerbating fatigue. We tested the hypothesis that a workplace-based Sleep Health Program (SHP) incorporating sleep health education and sleep disorders screening would improve firefigh...

Background Handcrews dig handlines to bare mineral soil for fire containment. Increasing the amount of firefighting resources is insufficient mitigate wildfire damage or decrease number large fires.Aims This study aims empirically assess handcrew fireline production rates through direct monitoring suppression actions on active wildfires.Methods A database was created from information gathered b...

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer survivors are deconditioned through anticancer therapy. Furthermore, about 10% of them have a permanent ostomy which is associated with weakened abdominal muscles and an increased risk of a hernia. This case study reports on how a firefighter with rectal carcinoma and ostomy was trained to regain operational fitness. METHODS A 44-year-old firefighter (178 cm, 82 k...