Should the disparity between the health screening requirements of Australian volunteer rural and career fire-fighters continue?
Mrs Megan Pilkington, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Australia*
Bushfire is a natural part of the Australian landscape which is one of the most fire prone countries in the world. Australian rural fire services in each of the six states and two territories rely heavily on approximately 220,000 volunteer fire fighters to respond to bushfires and other emergency incidents in rural and semi rural communities. From an occupational health and safety perspective it is important to ensure that fire fighters minimize their risk of illness or injury and therefore imperative that they are declared medically fit prior to undertaking these tasks.
The Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC) has developed guidelines which currently provide the basis for pre-employment health and fitness assessment of career fire fighters, employed in mainly urban, urban/rural interface settings or to support rural brigades. However a disparity currently exists for volunteer fire fighters as there are no consistent mandatory health and fitness screening prior to recruitment, nor are there any pre or post fire season health screening or monitoring requirements.
The cost of addressing this disparity for volunteer fire fighters would be considerable to the taxpayer, but could be offset by timely management of risk factors leading to improved mental and physical health and wellbeing, a lower incidence of chronic disease and decreased risk of premature death. However, introduction of any mandatory requirements could impact on the recruitment and retention of volunteer fire fighters and should only be undertaken with the full consultation of volunteer fire fighters to ensure a cooperative health promoting approach to what has been a long standing disparity.
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