The goal of this research study is to understand the risk of heart disease associated with working as a professional firefighter.

The study is designed to answer the following questions:

1. Do firefighters have an increased risk of hospitalization or death due to acute or chronic heart disease or high blood pressure relative to the general population of BC?
2. Are the sub-groups of firefighters that have higher levels of exposure to smoke, carbon monoxide, motor vehicle exhaust, or physical stress at an increased risk of heart disease?

Previous studies of firefighters have relied on death certificates alone to identify heart disease and many have only examined heart disease in relation to the number of years worked as a firefighter.

This will be the first study of firefighters to use hospital records to examine more specific forms of heart disease. It addition, the risk of heart disease will be examined in relation to more sophisticated indicators of exposure. Information from this research initiative may be used by decision makers to develop appropriate prevention strategies, educational materials, or workers’ compensation policies.