Heart Troubles Kill Many On-Duty Firefighters

March 22, 2007

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Even though firefighters don't spend much of their time actually fighting fires, their risk of dying of heart problems while doing so is up to 100 times greater than it is during their down time, researchers said. The finding came from a large U.S. study that provides more evidence that firefighters need to stay in shape. Experts said it shows that diet and exercise need to be priorities at the firehouse. About 100 firefighters die in the line of duty each year. Previous research had shown that nearly half of those deaths were due to heart disease. Researchers found that heart disease causes 45 percent of on-duty firefighter deaths. Heart disease is blamed for 22 percent of deaths among on-duty police officers, 11 percent of emergency medical service worker deaths and 15 percent of all on-the-job deaths. The Harvard study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. It doesn't address whether firefighters have an overall higher risk of dying from heart disease than the general population. The researchers studied deaths of firefighters from 1994 to 2004, but did not include deaths during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.