Effects of Different Interventions Aimed at Reducing Dermal and Internal Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure Among Firefighters

Firefighters are inherently exposed to soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at work. In this repeated measures study, we assessed if three different interventions reduced PAH exposure. For each sub-study, the firefighters participated in two sampling periods and thereby served as their own controls. The first period served as baseline, while the second period was the intervention period where the participants received education on health effects of soot, information on own PAH exposure, and participated in one of three interventions: (1) sauna after fire calls, (2) use of fire suits with improved barrier, and (3) showering after every fire call. We recruited 26 firefighters from three different fire stations. Dermal wipes were assessed for 16 PAHs and spot urine for eight hydroxylated metabolites. Pre-shift PAH burden was significantly reduced compared to our previous biomonitoring study. Post-shift levels of two PAH metabolites (1-hydroxypyrene and 1-hydroxyfluorene) were increased for firefighters after a work shift without fire calls compared to pre-shift. The sauna intervention significantly reduced the levels of all the measured urinary PAH metabolites while the dermal PAH exposure remained unaffected. The fire suit intervention yielded more inconsistent results. While standard shower reduced dermal PAH levels, no additional effects were observed for the shower intervention.