The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Bill Dedman
has produced a
special
investigation for MSNBC.com that shows a firefighter's last defense for safety
may be flawed.
The system in question is called
the "PASS
Alert." These are the signals that go off if a firefighter stops moving during a fire. They sound like electronic crickets and are
supposed to be so loud that fellow firefighters can hear them, even during an
emergency. But the investigation shows these alerts can fail when exposed to
too much heat or water.
Later this week, the agency that sets firefighter
safety standards nationwide will issue new guidelines for the PASS device that Dedman
investigated -- but in the months, and maybe years, it will take for fire
departments to act, millions of firefighters may be at risk. Dedman reports:
Worn by a million firefighters in
the U.S.,
the PASS device is a motion sensor that makes an awful racket if a firefighter
stops moving for 30 seconds while battling a blaze. It flashes its lights and
lets loose a series of ear-splitting beeps -- an urgent call to help a fallen
comrade.
It's a call that hasn't always been heard. Tests by
federal and independent labs show that some PASS alarms can fail to perform as
intended if they get too hot or wet -- a serious problem for people who rush
into burning buildings with water hoses. And federal investigative reports
reviewed by MSNBC.com show that 15 firefighters have died since 1998 in fires
where a PASS, or Personal Alert Safety System, either didn't sound or was so
quiet that rescuers weren't given a chance to find the firefighter quickly.
Documents
made public under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that nine of those
deaths came after the federal government blocked an investigation by its own
expert into possible failures of PASS alarms and other firefighting equipment.
A manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal
agency that is charged by Congress with investigating firefighter deaths,
ordered an agency fire safety engineer on Feb. 14, 2000, to "minimize your
fact gathering during investigations" and to restrict his investigations
to issues relevant "for the prevention of future similar events."
The story
continues:
After the CDC's warning, tests quickly demonstrated that
temperatures commonly encountered by firefighters could hurt the performance of
at least some PASS alarms. Tests in a convection oven at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology found a problem with the two models it tested: The
volume of the beeping diminished substantially at temperatures as low as 300
degrees Fahrenheit -- the sort of temperatures that firefighters encounter in a
room next to a fire. Researchers said they believe that all of the half-dozen
or so brands of PASS alarms on the market would be similarly affected.
In addition, some PASS devices made by at least three
manufacturers have had problems over the past decade with water leaking into
the electronics or battery compartments, causing them to either beep
continually or stop working altogether, according to interviews and documents
reviewed by MSNBC.com.
Later this week, a tougher new standard for testing PASS devices
in heat and water will be issued by the National Fire Protection Association.
But manufacturers say it will be months before an improved device is on the
market. And even when new models are available, there is no plan for recalling
the old ones, so fire departments may have to bear the cost of replacing them.
Meanwhile, the approximately 1 million professional and volunteer
firefighters across the nation will rely on the older PASS alarms as their last
line of defense.
Dedman
found cases of failed PASS alerts that may be related to the deaths of more
than a dozen firefighters from Keokuk, Iowa; Houston; Pensacola, Fla.; Jefferson City, Tenn.;
St. Louis and
New York City.
Al's Morning Multimedia
As you would expect, MSNBC includes some nice multimedia to
help explain the above investigation. Click here to see an animated
explanation of the problem with the PASS system.
You can see
a video story (to the right of the article) on this investigation reported by Dedman himself (an old
print guy).
And MSNBC includes many Web extras with this project,
including warning
letters [PDF] from people who tried to blow the whistle on the danger years ago, and
a warning more than a year ago from the National Fire Protection Association [PDF].
Firefighters Face Increased
Cancer Risk
While I am on the topic of
firefighter safety, I want to go back to a story I mentioned last year
about whether firefighters face an increased risk of cancer -- considering all of
the toxic stuff they breathe. A
recent study from the University of Cincinnati, which took into account
dozens of previous studies and the cases of more than 110,000 firefighters, found that firefighters do, in fact, have an increased cancer risk compared to other
professions:
University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health researchers have determined that
firefighters are significantly more likely to develop four different types of
cancer than workers in other fields.
Their findings suggest that the protective equipment
firefighters have used in the past didn't do a good job in protecting them
against cancer-causing agents they encounter in their profession, the
researchers say.
The
researchers found, for example, that firefighters are twice as likely to
develop testicular cancer and have significantly higher rates of non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma and prostate cancer than non-firefighters. The researchers also
confirmed previous findings that firefighters are at greater risk for multiple
myeloma.
Grace
LeMasters, PhD, Ash Genaidy, PhD, and James Lockey, MD, report these findings
in the November edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine. The UC-led research is the largest comprehensive study to date investigating
cancer risk associated with working as a firefighter.
"We
believe there's a direct correlation between the chemical exposures
firefighters experience on the job and their increased risk for cancer," says
LeMasters, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC.
Firefighters
are exposed to many compounds designated as carcinogens by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) -- including benzene, diesel engine exhaust,
chloroform, soot, styrene and formaldehyde, LeMasters explains. These
substances can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and occur both at the
scene of a fire and in the firehouse, where idling diesel fire trucks produce
diesel exhaust.
"Firefighters
work in an inherently dangerous occupation on a daily basis," LeMasters adds. "As public servants, they need -- and deserve -- additional protective measures that
will ensure they aren't at an increased cancer risk."
Resources:
Cutting Farm Subsidies to the Wealthy
Late last week, the Bush administration proposed ending farm subsidies for about 80,000 wealthy people. That's part of a larger plan to get rid of the loopholes and cut traditional farm programs by $4.5 billion over the next decade.
The
Washington Post says:
The proposal unveiled by Agriculture Secretary Mike
Johanns was the administration's opening move in what will be a lengthy tug of
war with Congress over a new multi-year farm bill. The current bill, one of the
most generous to farmers in history, expires Sept. 30.
Debate on the new legislation comes
at a time of major changes in agriculture. Booming demand from new ethanol
plants has pushed corn prices to near-record levels. At the same time, U.S. trade partners are threatening retaliation
unless the United States
curbs crop subsidies that are said to promote overproduction here and low
prices for farmers abroad.
"Times have changed,"
Johanns said, adding that commodity prices are strong, exports are up and
farmers have the lowest debt-to-asset ratio in history.
You "get local" on this story by
looking up (even down to the ZIP-code level) who in your area receives federal
farm subsidies. You can do that by clicking here.
Be sure to check out The
Washington Post's project
on federal agriculture subsidies.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
