EMS World Expo 2018

Join Chief Babinec as he explains how the Coral Springs Parkland Fire Department has been the change needed in the fire service in terms of how to prevent job-related exposures, not only on the fireground, but also through health and wellness initiatives and medical testing to create a baseline of clinical evidence for personnel.

About the Clean Cab initiative: Other than the firehouse, firefighters and emergency medical personnel spend the majority of their day in the cab of their apparatus.  It is within this environment, as well as the station environment, that change needs to happen.  These environments must stay clean and safe for all our responders.  The misconception that the only time firefighters may be at risk is when they are in a fire must change.  We now know that exposures can occur while donning gear, in the apparatus responding to and from the scene, outside of the structure in the hot zone, during maintenance and cleaning, and in rehab.  The other misconception of how an exposure takes place must be addressed as well; we now know that the routes of exposure are not only through inhalation but through dermal exposure and ingestion.  So just protecting our respiratory system is no longer acceptable.  We must do all we can to keep the cab of the apparatus and the interior of our stations as contaminant-free as possible.

A clean cab apparatus is an apparatus designed to facilitate a clean, healthy, and safe environment by reducing the exposure to contaminates associated with occupational exposures found in firefighting activities.  This is a different way of thinking and a big change within the fire service when it come designing suppression units.  When designing clean cab units this philosophy should apply to all apparatus i.e. transport units, suppressions units, command units and supports units. As a culture, the fire service is a bit resistant to change, especially a change of this scale.  The overall goal is reducing the exposure to contaminants that are proven to cause cancer among firefighters.