Lifestyle: Making the right choices

By Jamie Thompson, FireRescue1 News Editor

Americans are getting fatter — and firefighters aren’t exempt.

The percentage of the population estimated to be obese in the United States increased from 13 percent to 32 percent between the 1960s and 2004, according to a report last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center.

While civilians’ weight problems affect only themselves, firefighter fitness is important not only to their own personal health but to public safety, too — poor fitness levels make the arduous tasks involved in firefighting and rescues even more difficult.

The issue of firefighter health — and its potential impact on public safety — has prompted several studies in recent years.

Many of the most in-depth investigations have been led Dr. Stefanos Kales, who has worked with fire departments and hazardous materials teams for more than 15 years.

Kales was the primary investigator on a Harvard study published earlier this summer on the biggest killer of on-duty firefighters: heart attacks. He had also previously published a report into firefighter obesity levels.

He found in the obesity report that not only are many firefighters clinically obese, but that the prevalence rate is rising.

Kales’ team monitored about 340 members of six regional hazmat teams in Massachusetts over a five-year period in the late-1990s, during which time the obesity rate of the group rose from 35 percent to 40 percent. It also found, on average, that younger or obese firefighters gained significantly more weight compared with older or non-obese firefighters, respectively.

Kales said one of the most striking findings involved the fitness and weight levels of incoming recruits.

“We found that firefighters were generally very fit going into the service but over the course of a number of years — because of not exercising regularly, not eating right — many are becoming obese,” he said.

He said a big problem is the fact most fire departments still do not comprehensive health programs in place.

More than 70 percent of people who have responded to a current FireRescue1 poll that coincides with National Firefighter Health Week say their department does little to promote health and wellness issues.

Shirley Murphy, a professor emeritus from the Psychosocial and Community Health Dept. at the University of Washington, has also worked on studies into firefighter health.

Like Kales, she noticed a trend of firefighters being fit when entering the service, but overweight several years in.

“What I wanted to do was to look at some of the risk factors, such as not getting enough exercise and a lot of alcohol use,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s studies explored whether the issues contributing to weight gain were existent before the firefighter went into the fire service or if the firefighting culture created them once they had got in.

She said they found that very few of the problems later developed by the firefighters were present when they entered the service.

“Most of the habits that aren’t so good seemed to develop as a response to being in the fire service culture and the work stress, the difficult hours and the culture where they all stick together,” she said.

Given the unhealthy characteristics inherent in the fire service culture, Kales said promoting healthy eating in the fire service is vital.

“Most firefighters will tell you that eating is a big part of being in the firefighting community. A lot of activities are centered around that,” he said. “It’s important that people get the right education on eating well.”