Study Examines Older Firefighters' Ability to Handle Heat Stress

According to a study published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, older firefighters may be better able to tolerate longer periods of work in arduous environments before they feel affected by the heat, as compared to non-heat-exposed workers who would need to stop work sooner. Prior to this study, research had been conducted examining the physiological strain in young and middle-aged firefighters, but responses of older and more experienced firefighters had not been studied.

“We found that the firefighters experienced reduced subjective feelings of thermal and cardiovascular strain during exercise compared to the non-firefighters,” says Glen Kenny, Ph.D., School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, in Ontario, Canada. He says this is “potentially indicative of greater heat resilience in firefighters due to the nature of their occupation.”

Interestingly, the researchers found no difference in the levels of thermal and cardiovascular strain between the older heat-exposed firefighters and non-heat-exposed older workers. However, the non-heat-exposed workers felt more heat stressed relative to the older firefighters, and felt that the work performed was physically more challenging.

“If you have older workers who work in the heat, they are in a better position to handle working in the heat as compared to their non-heat-exposed counterparts,” says Kenny. “Our discovery is especially important given recent findings that aging can decrease an individual’s ability to dissipate heat and therefore work in hot environments,” Kenny concludes.

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