By Fedor Zarkhin
oregonlive.com
The U.S. Forest Service will begin providing wildfire crews with masks to protect against smoke, reversing a decades-long policy banning protective gear after The New York Times spotlighted severe health impacts from smoke exposure, including a case involving a young Oregon firefighter now battling cancer.
For decades, federal wildland firefighters were not given masks, even as researchers and labor groups warned of the long-term risks, the Times found. The Forest Service said masks could cause firefighters to overheat.
| MORE: Smoke in the air: Wildland firefighting is at a crossroads
One story focused on Joel Eisiminger, a 25-year-old private contract firefighter from southern Oregon who developed acute myeloid leukemia after breathing thick smoke across multiple fire seasons. He told the Times never saw any firefighters wear masks.
The agency now recommends masks for light use, though still bans it for arduous work. The Times reported that the agency has said it has a stockpile of 80,000 N95 masks and will begin providing them as standard equipment for all large fires.
The decision came the same week that U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is a pulmonologist, called for changes in the federal policy. Merkley, joined by Sen. Ron Wyden and three other senators, sent federal officials a letter Tuesday with a host of questions about the policy.
“Experts have clearly stated that ‘there is no safe level of exposure to wildfire smoke,’” the senators wrote. “Keeping wildland firefighters safe from — not just wildfires — but also the effects of smoke exposure is vital to ensuring this workforce can continue to keep us safe.”
Dexter and two California representatives submitted a letter requesting briefings with federal agencies.
“Recent reporting suggests that federal agencies are neglecting their duty to protect the health of wildland firefighters,” the lawmakers wrote. “Making matters worse, agencies are already struggling to fill vacant wildland firefighter positions. Neglecting the health of current firefighters will make future recruitment harder and leave our communities vulnerable.”
FireRescue1 readers respond:
“The policy is preposterous. No one makes such excuses for structural firefighting, where the heat load is much, much greater.”
“No, but it would be hard to breathe doing very heavy work. Some kind of respirator is needed. People in other industries use these while doing heavy work.”
“Heat stress is a short-term condition that can be immediately remedied by mandatory rest and work cycle adjustment. Lung issues usually last forever. A better respirator that is slimmer, lighter and maintainable needs to be created and the forest service needs to use them.
“We use Hotshield masks during the wildland fire season. They are carbon filtered and are a couple of steps above just an N95 mask. They have a fire-resistant face covering as well. I have done tens of thousands of acres in 100-degree weather, and although hot, I have not overheated. The benefit of smoke protection makes breathing easier, which I feel helps reduce overheating and side effects of breathing thick smoke.”
Is the Forest Service’s new “light-use” mask policy enough to protect wildland firefighters from smoke — or should respirators be allowed during arduous work despite heat-stress concerns?
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit oregonlive.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
