Presenter: C. Stuart Baxter

The use of synthetic residential building materials makes today’s fires more dangerous than ever. This suggests the high importance of monitoring exposure to the chemicals that have been identified as specific combustion products of these materials, and understanding the different kinds of toxicity, both short and long term, linked to exposure to them at the modern fire site. Cancer, heart disease, and reproductive outcomes have been proposed as potential results of exposure to these agents, and the role of them in firefighter disease profiles reported will be assessed. Procedures for protecting firefighters from them will also be discussed.