By PATTY PITTS
The smashed and crumbled cars, the concerned teenage onlookers and the hovering television news cameras indicated another tragic story of young lives lost. But no ambulances stood by while members of the Victoria Fire Department cut through shattered glass and pried open twisted car doors in front of Victoria High School. This was an exercise aimed at saving the firefighters.
While they worked, University of Victoria physical education graduate students stood nearby holding palm-sized monitors. They were reading the vital signs of the firefighters, transmitted via body monitors and tiny internal transmitters the men had swallowed earlier that morning.
Even during a simulation, the firefighters’ heart rates soared and their blood pressure rose. UVic researcher Dr. Lynneth Wolski hoped the transmitter technology, being used for the first time in B.C., would give a truer assessment of job stress on firefighters.
Full Story: http://ring.uvic.ca/06apr06/firefighters.html