This past Wednesday the Montana Legislature rejected a bill that would have provided benefits to firefighters that developed lung disease on the job. (wildfiretoday.com/...) One of the Representatives, Rep. Mark Noland (R..as if you had to guess) provided this wonderful quote:
That is their profession, that is what they chose, and we do not want to, you know, slight them in any way, shape or form, but it is something they’re going into with their eyes wide open.
I guess he thought that new firefighters plan on getting lung disease when they start so they should suffer in silence and accept it.
Forty six other states recognize and have benefits for “presumptive illnesses” of firefighters. British Columbia recognizes nine “presumptive cancers” that firefighters can get, including leukemia, testicular cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, bladder cancer, ureter cancer, colorectal cancer, and non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma. The Montana bill would only address one.
As I was going through firefighter training (way back in the late 80’s), I remember being told that among the things found in fire smoke is hydrogen chloride. Which, when breathed into the lungs, can turn into hydrochloric acid. Not to mention millions of unknown chemicals and particulate matter from burning buildings, furniture, and trees (depending on the fire). It is well known that the building fires of today are like a burning patch of crude oil because of the increased use of plastics.
What makes research into what chemicals are in building and wildland fire smoke so difficult is that the chemicals in the smoke are constantly changing in milliseconds. Changes in the amount of air content, heat, water, fuel, what is burning (paper, silk, foam, etc) will change the smoke in countless ways. Even some of the chemicals used to put out the fires (i.e. halon used in computer rooms) can cause lung cancer. Yes, firefighters in a structure fire carry and use self contained breathing apparatus, but wildland firefighters (often the same firefighters) do not.
Considering how the Republican’s view all job safety and long term care in a normal business environment, is it not surprising that they can’t see the need for long term care in an extreme environment such as firefighting.
