February is American Heart Month.

That’s it; one month and the shortest one at that?

How can we expect to maintain a sustained effort to reduce heart-related deaths in the fire service if we only pull out the PR campaign once a year?

Besides; we will forget about it as quickly as we forget all of those New Years’ resolutions. You know the ones; going to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more and trim your nose hair more often.

Doing what I just mentioned is taking some personal responsibility in our battle to reduce LODD heart attacks, but what about some of the triggers that come from outside the body; something like hydrogen cyanide (HCN)?

You should know that HCN is peeking over the shoulder of carbon monoxide (CO) at your structural fires.

Think about it; how many times have you read a post-mortem on a firefighter that says, “Recent physical found patient to be in good condition; no family history of heart disease; death from sudden cardiac arrest”?

If I was a betting man and I am, I would bet that hydrogen cyanide (HCN) got to him while he was inside doing salvage and over-haul and at a time when many of you will shed your SCBAs.

Why would we suspect hydrogen cyanide (HCN)?

For one thing, it’s a sneaky bastard.

It is colorless; it doesn’t always give off an odor and is released when products such as wool, silk, cotton, nylon, plastic, polymers, foam, melamine, polyacrylonitriles and synthetic rubber burns.

So, that “smoke” that you smell most likely contains hydrogen cyanide (HCN).

Plus, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) likes to hang out in enclosed areas. It dissipates very quickly outdoors, but inside, it is less dense than air and will rise, but will remain trapped in rooms.

As you breathe it, it will prevent the cells in the body from using oxygen, killing the cells. Since our heart and our brain use more oxygen than the other organs, they will be more greatly affected. It could cause the brain to become confused and send mixed signals to the heart, causing arrhythmia.

Other signs and symptoms of HCN exposure that should not be ignored are rapid breathing, restlessness, dizziness, weakness, headache, nausea/vomiting and rapid heart rate could give way to convulsions, low blood pressure, slow heart rate, loss of consciousness, lung injury and respiratory failure leading to death.

And were it not for the fact that you are a firefighter, these symptoms might be explained by some other medical reasoning.

And let’s be honest; some of the symptoms that I have described have been experienced by many of us at a fire scene, but ignored, because we figured it was from adrenaline, possibly smokeless tobacco or physical exertion. THAT is why we need to go to rehab and THEY have to be familiar with HCN exposure.

If you don’t think that this gas-a gas that is 35 times more toxic than carbon monoxide (CO)-can kill you, then why was it used in Nazi death camps during World War II?

Yeah; I know THAT got your attention!

Here is the most insidious characteristic of hydrogen cyanide (HCN): you may not suffer any short term effects at the time of exposure, but may develop symptoms after two or three weeks. This leads to the LODD question and the linkage to death due quite possibly to HCN exposure and whether it qualifies.

How many of you have gas detectors that test for hydrogen cyanide (HCN)?

How many of you wear full turnout gear, including SCBAs during ALL interior operations and until they are concluded? Dumpster fires? Vehicle fires? You’d better think about it.

How many departments have a rehab unit that is trained in HCN exposure recognition?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has several articles on hydrogen cyanide (HCN) that are worth your time to read.

One of the best articles out there right now is an article by Richard Rochford entitled “Hydrogen Cyanide: New Concerns for Firefighting”. It is a must read.

Then, click on www.firesmoke.org. Shawn Longerich would love to hear from you.

By recognizing and respecting the dangers of hydrogen cyanide, we may save more lives, including our own.

Being a “smoke eater” is no longer a badge of honor.

TCSS.

Sources:

Hydrogen Cyanide: New Concerns for Firefighting by Richard Rochford

Facts About Cyanide – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

February is American Heart Month – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The article is protected by federal copyright law under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella. It is written and submitted by Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. This article or any other article submitted under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella cannot be reproduced in ANY form without the expressed, written permission of the author. Violations are punishable by applicable laws.

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Wet hair, apply shampoo, rub thoroughly into hair, rinse, repeat.

I have always found directions for using shampoo to be rather ridiculous.

That is to say; if you have a chainsaw and a bottle of shampoo in front of you, which one could you most likely pick up and use without reading the directions?

If you said “shampoo”, then congratulations. You just might be smart enough to tackle the more complex chainsaw.

Question: if you have to read instructions before using shampoo, then should you be permitted to engage in more complicated personal hygiene tasks that require using soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant or (Dear God; grab the kids) a razor?

Wet, apply, rub in, rinse, repeat.

The fire service knows something about this phenomenon of “repeat”, don’t we?

The first thing that we would probably do to memorize this complex task would be to give it an appropriate acronym. Let’s see: W-A-R-R-R!

Hmmm. “War” pronounced like a pirate or Cat Woman would say it; take you pick.

In order for us to learn, we must repeat what we do several times. Hell; in order for us to TEACH a class, we need to review the subject matter repeatedly to get it right.

So, teaching and learning must be done by doing the same task over and over again. But, this time honored and proven learning tool should stop there.

It was never meant for us to repeat our mistakes and especially where men and women have died and data exists that, if read and then taught to firefighters, could reduce the chance that they could be repeated.

Either we are not reading the available information or we need to read the shampoo bottle before using it. Which is it? It could be both!

I know that Bill Carey will be posting a very analytical review of the 2009 LODDs. How many of you will take the time to read it? I know that I will, because I know how to use “shampoo” and I’m sure as Hell going to learn and then teach the lessons learned from the deaths of our brothers and sisters. When you do this, you are honoring them every day.

Do any of you ever look at developing trends in data?

For instance; how many times have we seen “lack of communications” in the LODD report of a fire ground death?

Is it because of a lack of radios or a lack of talking? Could it be confusion over radio frequencies? Perhaps there were so many others talking that no one heard the “may-day”.

Regardless, we have seen it A LOT and continue to see it in reports. I would venture to guess that Communications gets little-to-no training on many departments. Here’s your radio. Leave it on Channel One. You don’t need a spare battery.

Leaders: we have to do a better job.

Firefighters: you have to FORCE your leaders to do a better job.

We should NOT have to hold each other accountable with a conscious effort.

As firefighters; as brothers and sisters, we have sworn to have each others’ back. There should be no excuses, so put away the finger-pointing, cut out the “poor me” crap and if you have to get pissed off to get something done, then I hope that you are over-achievers!

We should have turned the corner years ago in dealing with heart attacks, apparatus and POV accidents while enroot, reading smoke and doing proper size-ups, knowing how and when to vent and knowing when to back the hell out of a structure.

But, still, we keep tripping over those directions found on a bottle of shampoo, because you’re going to get wet, you’re going to work up a lather, someone’s going to rub it in, everything will rinse out in the end, so, we will repeat it!

And just like “shampooing”, we will close our eyes when we do it.

What; no one told you to close your eyes when you shampoo?

Ooh; that’s got to sting!

To close, I will paraphrase the warden in the movie “Cool Hand Luke”:

Get your mind right or you’ll wind up in the box!

TCSS.

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author. You may read other works by the author at www.chiefreasonart.com.