Police Officers, Firefighters and/or Militaries High-Risk Job Occupations: Assessment of the Different Threats and Preventive Measures

Dear Colleagues,

A safe, healthy working environment is an essential condition when it comes to ensuring a good quality of life. This is the reason public administrations together with trade unions have long strived to increase workplace safety by promoting occupational risk prevention. However, work accidents still occur in many workplaces. Identifying potential threats and providing the tools required to minimize their impact is crucial to managing risks. In addition, workplace safety is both a humanitarian and economic concern, so improving working conditions is a global challenge.

Jobs in the police, firefighting, and/or military sectors are considered high-risk in comparison to other occupations since employees in these fields put their lives on the line every day to protect society. Among the many unsafe situations they have regularly to face, exposure to toxic or hazardous substances is one of them. In fact, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) firefighters are among the 18 occupations in which an increase of cancer cases has been demonstrated. After intervention, combustion products (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and metals remain impregnated in their fire suits and other personal protective equipment. Many of these compounds are carcinogenic, such as benzene, benzopyrene, 1,3-butadiene or formaldehyde, as well as heavy metals, such as Ni, Cd, Pb or Cr. For this reason, there is increased concern about the harmful effect that toxic combustion residues could have on firefighters’ health. Similarly, police and military personnel also face situations in which they are exposed to hazardous substances, including combustion products in fire scenes, as explained previously, but also explosive substances in terrorist assaults or gunshot residues from enemy shots or even from their shooting practice. Nevertheless, in these latter cases, the health risk due to chemical exposure to explosives or gunshot residues is negligible in comparison to the imminent physical risk of being fatally wounded by the expansive shockwave of a detonation or by bullets shot. The development and implementation of preventive measures to these and other weapons are also really necessary, such as the development and correct use of protective materials and/or the improvement of police/military intervention techniques. Therefore, all of these threats should be subject of much more research.

This Special Issue in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health offers the opportunity to publish high-quality multidisciplinary research and reviews related to the assessment of the chemical hazards or physical risks of firefighters, police officers, and/or military officers.

Dr. Marta Ferreiro-González
Dr. Gerardo Fernández Barbero
Dr. Félix Zapata Arráez
Dr. Estrella Espada-Bellido
Guest Editors

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