| Summary: |
During the last decades, climate changes and global warming have substantially contributed to increase the number of forest fires,
with longer fire seasons and more potent fires. Portugal has been severely affected by large forest fires and megafires, which have
been occurring mainly in the northern and central regions [1]. Fire-fighting personnel are heavily exposed to a wide range of health
hazardous gaseous chemicals and particulates. Fire combat activities require both physical and emotional preparation and involve
dealing with extreme situations, yet firefighter is among the least studied occupations in terms of exposures and the relationship to
occupational diseases. The difficulty involved in the collection of data on personal exposure during firefighting activities has largely
contributed to this scientific gap. Nowadays, the usage of biomonitoring [2-7] can supply precious complementary information that
can fulfill this gap.
BioFirEx is a multid isciplinary project that targets the main thematic area of occupational health and safety of firefighting personnel
within the 2018 FCT call. It aims to i) use a multidisciplinary approach to perform a comprehensive assessment of firefighter's
occupational exposure to hazardous pollutants generated by forest fires, ii) evaluate the associated impacts on occupational health
and safety and iii) as ultimate goals, to identify a set of appropriate (bio)markers for the surveillance of the occupational exposure
and workers' health and safety, and establish a list of recommendations/good practices based on health related evidences.
This project is a follow up of a former study of this research team (in the scope of a PhD work; annex 1 [6-10]). It will be c onducted
during 3 consecutive years in order to characterize the occupational exposure (via personal monitoring and biomonitoring) and
health (physical and psychological evaluation, clinical tests and questionnaires) in three different phase  |
Summary
During the last decades, climate changes and global warming have substantially contributed to increase the number of forest fires,
with longer fire seasons and more potent fires. Portugal has been severely affected by large forest fires and megafires, which have
been occurring mainly in the northern and central regions [1]. Fire-fighting personnel are heavily exposed to a wide range of health
hazardous gaseous chemicals and particulates. Fire combat activities require both physical and emotional preparation and involve
dealing with extreme situations, yet firefighter is among the least studied occupations in terms of exposures and the relationship to
occupational diseases. The difficulty involved in the collection of data on personal exposure during firefighting activities has largely
contributed to this scientific gap. Nowadays, the usage of biomonitoring [2-7] can supply precious complementary information that
can fulfill this gap.
BioFirEx is a multid isciplinary project that targets the main thematic area of occupational health and safety of firefighting personnel
within the 2018 FCT call. It aims to i) use a multidisciplinary approach to perform a comprehensive assessment of firefighter's
occupational exposure to hazardous pollutants generated by forest fires, ii) evaluate the associated impacts on occupational health
and safety and iii) as ultimate goals, to identify a set of appropriate (bio)markers for the surveillance of the occupational exposure
and workers' health and safety, and establish a list of recommendations/good practices based on health related evidences.
This project is a follow up of a former study of this research team (in the scope of a PhD work; annex 1 [6-10]). It will be c onducted
during 3 consecutive years in order to characterize the occupational exposure (via personal monitoring and biomonitoring) and
health (physical and psychological evaluation, clinical tests and questionnaires) in three different phases (Phase I - pre-exposure,
Phase II - exposure, and Phase III - post-exposure to fires) of all the fire-fighting personnel of the entire Bragança district
(northeast of Portugal). A total of 250 firefighters from the 15 fire stations (National Civil Protection Authority-ANPC), 60 from the 5
regional forest protective associations, and 66 subjects from the Protection Group of Intervention and Relief of the National
Republican Guard will be involved and thus, with the support of the municipalities (Annex 2), BioFirEx will promote the liaison with
the local and regional entities and problems, thus contributing to the definition of public policies.
BioFirEx will link individual personal (air and dermal) monitoring [exposure to the fine fraction of particulate matter (PM); polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); volatile organic compounds (VOCs); toxic metals: Pb, Cd, As; carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen
dioxide (NO2)] with individual data on physical and psychological health, clinical tests (vital signs, lung function, sleep
characterization), (bio)markers of cardio-respiratory inflammation, biomarkers of exposure (metabolites in exhaled air, urine, and
blood), biomarkers of effect (micronucleus in buccal and urine cells, and comet assay in peripheral blood) and questionnaires
[collect standardized data on socio-demographic factors, the respiratory health, lifestyle, and relevant exposures (work and non-
occupational), quality of life healthcare, capability index for work, vulnerability to stress and the quality of sleep]. Occupational
safety will be also evaluated through characterization of subjects' personal protective equipment (PPE) contamination after
firefighting, promoting the identification of its main weaknesses points. BioFirEx will provide the so-much-needed-data for
establishment of a panel of (bio)markers to better characterize firefighters' occupational exposure, health and safety to help
preventing/reducing the associated health impacts and improve working conditions. This study will allow better definitions of policies
and prevention strategies for occupational exposure, as well as for implementation of safety and hygiene measures in this sector.
The goals of this project will be achieved by an inter- and multi-disciplinary collaboration between the ANPC, the Northeast Local
Public Health Unit (ULSNE) from the Portuguese Ministry of Health, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança through School of Health
(IPB), The Institute of Public Health (ISPUP), the Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), and REQUIMTE. The involved team consists of
specialists in fire combat, occupational exposure, air pollution and health risks assessment, chemists, biochemists, physicians
(specialists in pulmonology, psychiatry and occupational health) and technicians of cardio-pulmonology health. All the conditions,
procedures, and analytical methodologies needed to successfully perform this work are available and well implemented in the
different research units as shown previously [6-16,22,27]. |