Managing smoke impacts on firefighter eye health

Eye irritation is a problem for 90% of surveyed firefighters during or after working on the fireground.  While goggles are currently used as personal protective equipment, current research suggests googles are not used as prescribed due to poor fitting and fogging.

This project will enhance the health of first responders by investigating better ways to manage the impacts of smoke on firefighters.

Recent findings suggest that current guidelines on eye protection for firefighters are restricted only to goggles, which have inherent limitations of use. Evidence on the effectiveness of other non-goggles based strategies (which are used in other scenarios where eyes are exposed to environmental irritants) is lacking for wildland firefighters. In addition, the capacity of firefighters to carry out these non-goggles based methods on the fireground and in the hours after has not yet been tested. 

Research findings from this project will provide guidelines and recommendations for operational implementation to manage operational eye irritation for firefighters.