Firefighter Exposure: Assessing and Minimizing Dermal Risk

摘要

There is a common misperception that we don't know what firefighters are exposed to during a fire. Although the complex mixture of combustion by-products is different for every fire (and for every phase of the fire), the components of the mixture have been well characterized. In general, those groups include the following:•Particulates (i.e., carbon).•Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.•Undecomposed products, or monomers.•Various hydrocarbons including aromatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).•Oxygen-containing organics including organic acids, aldehydes,and ketones (i.e., acrolein).•Nitrogen and sulfur containing organic compounds (i.e.,propylnitrile).•Halogen-containing organics (i.e., vinyl chloride).•Simple inorganic molecules (i.e., nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and hydrogen cyanide).