Immunological and inflammatory issues in fire instructors of the UK Fire Service

Working together with East Sussex Training Centre, Surrey Training Centre and Moreton-in-Marsh Training centre over a period of nine years, researchers investigated the health and working practices of fire instructors in response to immunological and inflammatory issues in fire instructors as a result of working practices such as preparation, recovery and volume of wears (the term used for a training exposure).

Studies included:
> UK national survey of fire instructors and fire fighters on health and wellbeing
Investigation into the physiological and perceptual responses to different fire instructor heat exposure sessions
> Lab-based heat tolerance of fire instructors and fire exposure history
> Collection of immunological, inflammatory and cardiac damage blood markers in fire fighters and instructors in relation to exposure history.

The overarching aim was to investigate and optimise the working practices of UK fire instructors to reduce the impact of repeated severe heat exposure on health and wellbeing.

This work research is important for the roughly 250 instructors active in the UK and many thousands worldwide that are exposed to severe heat many times each week. Due to the size of the group, they are often overlooked and under-represented, yet these individuals consistently undergo severe physiological stress which must be reduced where possible and within feasible working capacities.

The findings have shown that firefighters are immune-compromised in an overtraining type response. This work has been cited and discussed in the national Breathing Apparatus Instructors Health Management Guidelines issued by the Chief Fire Officers Association. Preparatory and recovery practices have been evaluated and are now being integrated into working practices of instructors to reduce thermal load and physiological stress.
Published outputs included:

Watkins, E. R., Hayes, M., Watt, P. & Richardson, A. J., 16 Mar 2019, Heat tolerance of Fire Service Instructors In: Journal of Thermal Biology.

Richardson, A., Hayes, M., Watkins, E., Willmott, A., Relf, R. & Watt, P., (2018), Commissioned report.  Firefighters Heat Exposure: Considerations for Preparation, Recovery and Heat Illnesses 

Watkins, Emily and Richardson, Alan (2016) Fire Service Instructors undergarment choice to reduce interleukin-6 and minimise physiological and perceptual strain. Journal of Thermal Biology. ISSN 0306-4565

Watt, Peter, Willmott, Ashley, Maxwell, Neil, Smeeton, Nicholas, Watt, Eleanor and Richardson, Alan (2016) Physiological and psychological responses in Fire Instructors to heat exposures. Journal of Thermal Biology, 58. pp. 106-114. ISSN 0306-4565

Watkins, Emily and Richardson, Alan (2015) Fire Service Instructors undergarment choice can minimise physiological and perceptual strain. Extreme Physiology & Medicine, 4 (S1). ISSN 2046-7648

BAI CFOA Health Management Guidance, UK (Oct 2015)

Watkins, Emily, PhD thesis, Physiological and Inflammatory Responses to UK Fire Service Instructors’ Working Practices Richardson, A. (Supervisor), Hayes, M. (Supervisor) & Watt, P. (Supervisor), Sept 2018