The U.S. Forest Service has announced it is reversing a ban on federal firefighters wearing masks, and will give crews protective N95s as they battle increasingly intense fires across the nation.
For decades, the agency argued their use made firefighters vulnerable to heat exhaustion.
Other wildfire-prone nations, such as Canada, Greece and Australia, provide their firefighters with masks to prevent lung damage and smoke-related diseases, including cancer and organ failure — and have not seen increases in heat stroke among the crews.
The policy will have little bearing on local and regional urban firefighters, such as those in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
“We are actually encouraged to wear them,” said Jonathan Torres, engineer and spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
“There are chemicals that are unknown to us that are part of our work,” as buildings and infrastructure burn, he said. Masks provide some protection against harmful smoke particles and chemicals released when plastics, upholstery and synthetic building materials burn.
Earlier this week, the forest agency announced it has stockpiled roughly 80,000 N95 masks and will include them as part of the equipment they provide for large fires.
The decision came following a series of New York Times reports that detailed the Forest Service’s decades-long refusal to require, or even offer, masks to its crews, despite recommendations from state and federal health agencies, and a growing body of evidence that wildfire smoke is harming firefighter health.
“To provide masks, and even require masks, is an implicit admission of the health hazards of smoke,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, an organization that promotes the health and safety of wildland firefighters.
Ingalsbee and others say the Forest Service’s reluctance to encourage mask wearing was probably motivated by concern it would be admitting that smoke poses dangers and risks to its crews.
Research shows that firefighters have a 9% higher risk of getting a cancer diagnosis than the general public, and 14% higher risk of dying from cancer. Crews may be exposed to smoke and other toxins believed to cause cancer, such as benzene, phenols and heavy metals, while fighting fires.
Federal lawmakers are now working on safety legislation to protect federal and contract wildland firefighters, and have sent a series of letters to the Forest Service criticizing what they call its decades-long neglect.
Reports suggest that “that federal agencies are neglecting their duty to protect the health of wildland firefighters,” wrote Reps. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) in a letter to Forest Service chief Tom Schultz. “Neglecting the health of current firefighters will make future recruitment harder and leave our communities vulnerable.”
On Tuesday, they grilled Schultz at a House oversight meeting.
Huffman urged Schultz to warn workers about the dangers of smoke exposure: “Chief, do you feel like the Forest Service is doing everything that it can to make the safety risk of smoke inhalation known to firefighters?”
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection also announced Tuesday that the state will be funding research designed to examine how smoke and other occupational exposures may increase cancer risk in firefighters.
The research, which includes a collaboration among scientists and experts at UCLA, UC Davis and Cal Fire, is backed by nearly $9.7 million in state funding and will include 3,500 firefighters from departments across the state over a two-year period.
The study comes at a time when the Trump administration has made drastic cuts to cancer research.
“It’s California at our best: our world-class public universities teaming up with the women and men who put their lives on the line to protect others — all in an effort to improve health outcomes for all,” Newsom said in a statement.
The study will include a focus on the exposures and biological changes that occurred in firefighters who responded to the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles.
Ingalsbee said that masks are not always appropriate when fighting fires — there are activities, such as traipsing up and down steep terrain when a N95 mask can get gummed up with debris and sweat and make it difficult for a firefighter to breathe.
However, he said the vast majority of the time, when firefighters are at their base camps, where it’s often smoky, or driving along dusty, sandy roads, masks could go a long way to protect their lungs, reducing exposure.
“There are times when masks are unsuitable and firefighters overheat and they are uncomfortable,” he said. “But there’s a lot of times when they’d be very useful in limiting their exposure. And maybe could save some lives.”