Firefighter Exposure to Smoke Particulates

Under a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighter Grant, UL in collaboration with the Chicago Fire Department and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, recently completed a sixteen month study on the smoke and gas exposure firefighters confront during firefighting operations and subsequent contact exposure resulting from residual contamination of personal protective equipment. The project included investigations on three fire scales: (1) fires in the Chicago metropolitan area, (2) residential room content and automobile fires, and (3) material-level fire tests. Detected effluent gases, airborne chemicals and smoke particulates were assessed by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine for their potential adverse health effects to fire service personnel.

For more information about this project please see the executive summary or the full report.

Publications

Ultrafine Particle Exposure During Fire Suppression-Is It an Important Contributory Factor for Coronary Heart Disease in Firefighters? - Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine: August 2010 - Volume 52 - Issue 8 - pp 791-796

Residential Building Fire Test Scenarios to Investigate Firefighter Exposure to Smoke - Proceedings of Interflam 2010 Fire Science and Engineering Conference - pp 949-960

Characterization of Combustion Products from Flaming Materials - Proceedings of Interflam 2010 Fire Science and Engineering Conference - pp 1909-1923 

Project Partners