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About 45% of deaths among on-duty firefighters are caused by heart disease. To explore why heart disease is the leading cause of death in this context, researchers analyzed narrative summaries, collected by the U.S. Fire Administration, of deaths associated with firefighting from 1994 through 2004. Deaths associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were excluded.
Of 1144 firefighter deaths, 449 (39%) were attributed to coronary heart disease; 144 of the 449 (32%) occurred during fire suppression even though that activity accounted for only an estimated 1% to 5% of firefighters’ on-duty time. Other emergency duties (e.g., alarm response and return) also accounted for a disproportionately large percentage of on-duty CHD deaths…