Morning Lineup – January 10

On Tuesday a press release was issued jointly by the IAFF and a firm called the Masimo Corp. announcing a safety campaign being launched by the International union to monitor carbon monoxide (CO) levels in fire and EMS workers.  (You can read the entire announcement HERE.)

They are promoting the use of a device called a “Pulse CO-Oximeter ” which is a non-invasive appliance that can measure the CO level in your bloodstream quickly and easily.  From the press release:

In a letter to all local union presidents in North America, the IAFF highlighted the need for a new protocol whereby any fire fighter potentially exposed to CO and presenting with headache, nausea, shortness of breath, or gastrointestinal symptoms should be assessed using a Pulse CO-Oximeter. IAFF General President Harold A. Schaitberger acknowledged the prevalence, severity and frequency of the detrimental effects of CO. “We believe that many of the cardiac arrests fire fighters are experiencing may well be attributable to CO exposure,” President Schaitberger said.

This is good and welcome news.  Carbon monoxide tends to stick around once it gets into your bloodstream and can accumulate over time.  But it also has the ability to hide in the atmosphere that you breathe so that you are unaware of ingestions of it while you are working.

After the fire is out and everyone is taking a break, we use the time to let the fire building ventilate before going back in for the overhaul.  And this leads to a false sense of security with the infusion of fresh air.  We feel like it ok to breathe in their now, so we can drop the SCBA’s and move more freely.  When it comes to ripping walls and prying up floor boards, it is restrictive to do prolonged, heavy manual labor with those bulky air tanks on our backs.  But those fire products are still around pumping out high quantities of CO right where we’re working, sucking in large breaths to feed the exertion from heavy work.

Despite all the warnings, and even though the FF’s acknowledge that it is dangerous, the overhaul crew still tends to shed the SCBA in order to get the work done efficiently.  And later on the chief officers take a tour of the fire zone, followed up by the investigators.  All without breathing protection.

At least if we can get these oximeters on the ambulances, we’ll be able to monitor people better and just maybe get them to “see the light” and take better notice of what they are sucking into their lungs out there.

Ok, let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll make sure the coffee gets started.

Results of clinical case studies using the Masimo CO oximeter HERE and HERE.