Ch. 10: Reading Firefighters Flashcards
If we are truly dedicated to preventing injuries and deaths, we need to address the number one cause of injuries - _____________.
overexertion
What are the related factors that influence overexertion?
Ergonomics, physiology, and rehab efforts.
What is the science of adapting work or working conditions to a worker?
ergonomics
What is the key to preventing overexertion?
Being aware of the muscular and skeletal stresses and strains that firefighters undergo.
The ISO should evaluate the environment, the relationship of the worker to the environment, and the task being attempted.
Often, a slight change in any of these areas can reduce injury potential.
What are the three strategies that an ISO can utilize to abate or mitigate ergonomic hazards?
Awareness, accommodation, and acclimation.
Which ergonomic abatement strategy is perhaps the most used and certainly the most simple?
Awareness
Which is the ergonomic abatement strategy that acknowledges that the workers are less apt to suffer an injury if they are aware of the problem, thereby heightening their cautiousness?
Awareness
What ergonomic abatement strategy is used when injury potential is reduced by altering the environment or the task?
Accommodation
What ergonomic strategy is the use of personal protective equipment an example of?
accommodation
What ergonomic strategy is the use of a warning of a slippery surface or a reminder to lift with leg leverage and a tight core an example of?
awareness
What is the most difficult ergonomic abatement strategy to implement during an incident?
acclimation
How is acclimation in terms of ergonomic abatement accomplished?
Most acclimation is done proactively
What does physiological performance depend on of the firefighter?
It depends on the metabolic processing (cell chemistry)
What are the factors that affect cell chemistry include?
thermal stress, hydration, and fuel replacement
What incident efforts can address the factors that affect cell chemistry?
Rehabilitation; “rehab”
In what forms can thermal stress be presented?
Heat or cold.
What are the factors that may cause core temperatures to rise?
Activity, humidity, air temperature, the effectiveness of cooling mechanisms, and sun, shade, and wind.
What can cause heat stress reducing the body’s ability to evaporate heat by sweating?
Full structural protective clothing
The use of shade, air movement, and rest to bring down human core temperatures.
passive cooling
Using external methods or devices (such as hand and forearm immersion, misting fans, or ice vests) to reduce an elevated core temperature?
active cooling
What reaction may be possible when the body reacts to the immediate temperature change that sends a mixed signal to the hypothalamus?
decreased cognitive reasoning
How can the prevention of thermal stress injuries be accomplished through?
Accommodation, rotation, and hydration.
What is vital to the peak operation of virtually every body system?
water
A person’s physiological response to the 24-hour clock, which includes sleep, energy peaks, and necessary body functions.
circadian rhythms