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Cardiovascular disease accounts for nearly half of deaths among on-duty firefighters, but the association between specific firefighting activities and death is not clear. Using several national databases, investigators examined CHD death rates associated with different types of firefighter’s activities, including fire suppression, response to an alarm, return from an alarm, physical training, and nonemergency duties. Of 1144 firefighter deaths reported from 1994 to 2004, the authors classified 449 (about 40 per year) as caused by CHD.
Fire suppression represented only 1% to 5% of on-duty time but accounted for 32% of CHD deaths. Compared with risk during nonemergency duties, risk for CHD death was 100 times higher during fire suppression, 14…