Esteemed fire chief and attorney Curt Varone has underscored in many of his articles a critical point for all fire service leaders: You can’t expect a transactional solution to solve a transformational problem.
Varone makes this point when talking about why too many fire departments are still finding themselves beset by charges of sexual harassment, sexual assault and bullying. More than two decades of policies and procedures and training classes have not had the desired impact on many fire departments.
We’re seeing a similar phenomenon in the fire service regarding our efforts to reduce the risk of exposure to the chemicals, chemical compounds and carcinogens found in the smoke and off-gassing from structure fires. We’ve done the education. We’ve developed and implemented operational policies and procedures (e.g., initial contaminant reduction/gross decontamination and removing contaminated gear on the scene). So, we should be well on our way to significantly reducing those occupational cancer risks for firefighters, right? … What they found can best be summed up with this statement from the study: “While firefighter attitudes were overwhelmingly favorable toward cleaning gear (knowledge), their actual decontamination and cleaning behaviors (doing) did not follow at the same level.”
While the firefighters who participated in the study reported positive attitudes, beliefs and perceived norms about decontamination, both on scene and back at the fire station, showering after a fire was the only decontamination process that occurred regularly. Initial contaminant reduction, use of cleansing wipes, routine gear cleaning and other behaviors all occurred less frequently.