Understanding airborne contaminants produced by different fuel packages during training fires

Abstract

Fire training may expose firefighters and instructors to hazardous airborne chemicals that vary by the training fuel. We conducted area and personal air sampling during three instructional scenarios per day involving the burning of two types (designated as alpha and bravo) of oriented strand board (OSB), pallet and straw, or the use of simulated smoke, over a period of 5 days. Twenty-four firefighters and ten instructors participated. Firefighters participated in each scenario once (separated by about 48 hr) and instructors supervised three training exercise per scenarios (completed in 1 day). Personal air samples were analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and hydrogen cyanide during live-fire scenarios (excluding simulated smoke). Area air samples were analyzed for acid gases, aldehydes, isocyanates, and VOCs for all scenarios. For the live-fire scenarios, median personal air concentrations of benzene and PAHs exceeded applicable shortterm exposure limits and were higher among firefighters than instructors. When comparing results by type of fuel, personal air concentrations of benzene and PAHs were higher for bravo OSB compared to other fuels. Median area air concentrations of aldehydes and isocyanates were also highest during the bravo OSB scenario, while pallet and straw produced the highest median concentrations of certain VOCs and acid gases. These results suggest usage of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) by both instructors and firefighters is essential during training fires to reduce potential inhalation exposure. Efforts should be taken to clean skin and clothing as soon as possible after live-fire training to limit dermal absorption as well.

Impact of select PPE design elements and repeated laundering in firefighter protection from smoke exposure

“…For each PAH sample, total PAHs were calculated by summing the concentrations (OVS-XAD-7 air samples ¼ mg/m 3 ; PTFE filters ¼ mg/filter) of the 15 PAHs. Zero was used for non-detectable concentrations of individual PAHs in this summation (Fent et al 2019). For each exposure trial, we calculated the median of the ambient PAH and benzene air concentrations.…”

“…The ambient chamber PAH air concentrations in this study (range in medians: 70,700À285,500 mg/m 3 ) were generally higher than levels reported in our previous residential fire and training fire studies 0.017 0.003 0.008 A To estimate the impact of repeated exposure and laundering on PPE protection factors, we calculated the ratio of median ambient chamber air benzene concentrations (Table 1) to benzene under jackets (rib region) B p-value from multiple linear regression of the log-transformed ratios of benzene under jackets in the chest region to median ambient chamber air benzene concentrations by type of jacket closure, controlling for cleaning cycles/exposure trial C p-value from multiple linear regression of the log-transformed ratios vs. cleaning cycles/exposure trial, controlling for type of jacket closure (maximum 78,200 mg/m 3 ) (Fent et al 2018(Fent et al , 2019. This relative increase in concentration may provide a high-concentration challenge to identify possible leakage paths in the PPE, which is similar to traditional laboratory simulant tests (Horn et al 2020).…”

“…Air samples that did not run for at least 3 min of the fire were excluded because they may not accurately reflect the average concentration during the 10-min scenario, consistent with previous controlledfire evaluations (Fent et al 2018(Fent et al , 2019. In total, three BTEX air samples were excluded due to a sampling time of less than 3 min.…”

Health Risks of Structural Firefighters from Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Although there was a wide range of variability, naphthalene was the component mainly responsible for total PAH across the studies. Naphthalene predominated (ranges: 66-68%) the total PAH analytes in a fuel package comparison study [35]. As the molecular structure of PAH may contribute to the FC of skin wipe samples, the mean of PAH concentration was estimated using the number of fused aromatic rings (Table 3).…”

Work Conditions and Practices in Norwegian Fire Departments From 1950 Until Today: A Survey on Factors Potentially Influencing Carcinogen Exposure

“…An Australian study provided some evidence that instructors at a training facility for firefighters were at increased risks of overall cancer, testicular cancer, brain cancer, and cutaneous melanoma compared with the general population [ 15 ]. Different combustible materials used during live fire training can produce varying amounts of different carcinogens, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds [ 16 , 17 ].…”