New NIOSH Center to Centralize Agency's Efforts for Firefighters

NIOSH’s new Center for Firefighter Safety, Health, and Well-Being, which launched on Monday, is intended to centralize the agency’s research and service related to firefighters. According to NIOSH, the center aims to enable earlier and faster responses to new and emerging hazards, improving protections for this workforce. Among the issues the center will address are the risk of cancer among firefighters; hazardous exposures, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in firefighting foam and turnout gear; and the hazards of smoke from fires burning in the wildland-urban interface, or areas where wildland vegetation and urban neighborhoods meet. NIOSH will also continue investigating line-of-duty deaths and evaluating personal protective equipment, including respirators and turnout gear, for structural and wildland firefighters.

“As the threat from structural and wildland fires grows, both firefighters and other workers face risks from fire-related exposures,” NIOSH’s website states. “The Center provides an opportunity to better understand the hazards for those responding to fires as well as those exposed to the effects of fires.”

For more information, see the NIOSH news release and the webpage for the Center for Firefighter Safety, Health, and Well-Being.

Related: Read “Introducing the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer,” “From Fire Season to Fire Year,” and “Reflections on Wildland Firefighting.”