CHANGES YOU CAN MAKE TODAY

Prevention Practices: IAFF Wellness-Fitness Initiative

1. Annual Fitness Evaluations: Recommended Fire Fighter Annual Healthcare Screening Tests

2. Sleep Hygiene and Education: Harvard Medical School’s “Fatigue Management in First Responders”

3. Proper Nutrition: Harvard University’s Dr. Stefanos Kales’ “Feeding America’s Bravest” and the Mediterranean Diet

TAKE ACTION

• Use SCBA from initial attack to the finish of overhaul (not wearing your SCBA in both active and post-fire environments is the most dangerous voluntary activity in the fire service today).

• Conduct gross field decontamination of all PPE to remove as much soot and particulate as possible.

• Change your clothes and wash them immediately after a fire.

• Shower thoroughly after a fire.

• Do not take contaminated clothes or PPE home or store them in your vehicle.

• Decontaminate fire apparatus interior after fires.

• Keep PPE out of living areas of the fire station.

• Stop using tobacco products.

• Use sunscreen or sunblock.

• Participate in regular WeFit exams.