WILDFIRE CREWS PAY A HEAVY PRICE IN HEALTH
The 80,000 men and women who battle the nation's wildfires have always known their lives were endangered by flames or heat or falling debris.   But now, two new studies show they also face an unseen hazard: Their health is under siege from the poisonous stew of gases and soot in wildfire smoke.   Among the culprits are carbon monoxide, which slows reaction and impairs judgment; microscopic particles of carbon that lodge in the lungs; aldehydes and acids that irritate air passages, and hydrocarbon-based substances and other chemicals that can damage genes and cause cancer, tests show.   Wildland firefighters, whose only protection is the cotton bandanna covering their faces, lose as much as 10% of their lung capacity after one routine season, and the damage persists for weeks, according to the studies by the California Department of Health Services and the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. Combined, the researchers tested the lungs of more than 100 California wildland firefighters before and after the 1988 and 1989 fire seasons.   Health experts also suspect that exposure to wildfire smoke may accelerate aging, prompt fatal heart attacks or cancer and trigger respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis or asthma.   "After fires, they cough up black gunk. Then, after a week, they think they're back to normal. But our studies show their lungs aren't back to normal," said Dr. Robert Harrison, the California health department's chief of occupational health surveillance and the physician in charge of one of the studies.   "For some of the firefighters, the drop in lung function was rather striking."   The worst doses of carbon monoxide and other hazardous chemicals, which can be fatal, are given off when fires smolder, the stage in which firefighters spend most of their time, said Darold Ward, a U.S. Forest Service chemist.   Mark Linane, who heads a national firefighting crew known as the Hotshots, said he has seen wildland firefighters so poisoned by carbon monoxide that they can't decide which shoe to tie.   The hazards are particularly acute in Southern California, which is prone to more large, smoky fires than anywhere else in the nation. Its four-year drought has turned grasslands tinder dry, and its stagnant weather conditions and topography can trap smoke for days.   Furthermore, forestry officials predict that the region's 1990 fire season will be devastating.   The Yosemite fires, which have scorched more than 15,000 acres and are still out of control, and the recent Santa Barbara and Glendale fires, which destroyed nearly 500 homes, are only the largest of hundreds of blazes in the state.   "We've got lots of summer ahead of us and we've already burned 600 or 700 structures," said Deputy Chief Keith Metcalfe of the state's southern regional firefighting crew in Riverside. " . . . Because of the dryness, fires are burning more rapidly and more intensely."   For nearly 10 years, urban firefighters have known that toxic smoke from burning structures and cars greatly increases their chances of cancer and heart disease. The bandannas that once were their only protection were replaced by air tanks and masks long ago.   But the U.S. Forest Service and state and county fire officials have been unable to protect their wildfire crews because they know of no gear light enough for firefighters to wear while hiking miles in burning terrain or effective enough to filter out the wide variety of toxic materials in smoke.   Furthermore, developing protection for the crews has gotten little attention and virtually no state or federal funding.   National fire officials say they cannot get help from Congress unless they can prove firefighters are dropping dead. But because no mortality studies have been funded, all they have is the old joke heard around the fire camp: Just try to find a wildland firefighter still breathing after 60.   "It's a crime that we continue to let these guys function like this," said James Johnson, director of hazard control projects at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California, which is developing respiratory gear for its firefighters. "They're a forgotten group, a hidden subset of people who have been ignored en masse. In all my 18 years of experience in industrial hygiene, I've never seen anything like it.".   In the past, firefighters believed their coughing and congestion were fleeting side effects. But the new health studies have documented physiological changes in the lungs and airways that do not vanish with the smoke.   The Johns Hopkins tests, conducted on 52 Northern California wildland firefighters during the 1988 season, showed that their lung function -- or flow of oxygen -- remained reduced by as much as 3% even eight weeks after exposure. The researchers said they have not determined if the lungs heal between seasons or if the damage accumulates.   The California health department's tests on 63 firefighters showed they lost as much as 10% of their lung capacity during one six-month fire season, with an average loss of 4%.   For many firefighters, the lung congestion turns into bronchitis or walking pneumonia three times a year, said Linane, 46, who has fought wildfires for 28 years.   "You take antibiotics and it eventually goes away," Linane said. "But then it comes back. And more often."   During the four months of fires in 1988 at Yellowstone National Park, 12,000 firefighters sought medical aid for respiratory problems, and about 600 needed a doctor's care after returning home, a U.S. Forest Service report says.   Stan Stewart, 37, said he knew when he joined the Forest Service at 17 that the job was dangerous. But he didn't know he would feel sicker and sicker every year.   "The doctor told me I look like I've smoked 10 packs of cigarettes a day all my life. But I've never smoked," said Stewart, foreman of the Hotshot crew in Los Padres National Forest near Ojai. "My lungs are probably shot. I'm a little more worried every year."   Health researchers, usually reluctant to interfere in policy decisions, said they feel strongly enough about the hazard that they are urging fire officials to provide respiratory protection as soon as possible.   "We're not surprised firefighters have decreased lung function. We just wanted to document it so the firefighting agencies would take action," said Dr. John Balmes, a pulmonary specialist and occupational health expert at UC San Francisco who helped with the state's study.   Harrison said the forestry agencies and fire departments should at least warn their crews -- and potential recruits -- of the danger and consider rotating shifts more often to reduce smoke exposure.   Although the findings of the national studies have not yet been published, word has spread to top officials in the state Forestry Department, who say they are now starting to search for protection for the agency's 3,500 full-time firefighters and about 2,000 seasonal ones.
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