Mental health of UK firefighters.

Exposure to trauma, high-stress situations, and disrupted sleep are well known risk factors affecting firefighters' mental health. Little is known about the association between firefighters' exposure to fire contaminants and mental health disorders. The UK Firefighter Contamination Survey assessed firefighters' health and capacity for occupational exposure to contaminants.

Contamination of UK firefighters personal protective equipment and workplaces.

Firefighters' personal protective equipment (PPE) is a potential source of chronic exposure to toxic contaminants commonly released from fires. These contaminants have also been found in fire stations. However, little research characterises the routes via which fire contaminants travel back to fire stations.

Culture and awareness of occupational health risks amongst UK firefighters.

Firefighters are exposed to toxic chemicals not only from the fire incidents they attend, but also from their contaminated station and/or personal protective equipment (PPE). Little is currently known about firefighters' awareness, attitudes, and behaviours towards contaminants which was assessed in the UK firefighter contamination survey. Results revealed that lack of training on fire effluents and their health outcomes are strongly associated with increased fire smoke/contaminant exposure.

Cancer incidence amongst UK firefighters.

Firefighters suffer an increased risk of cancer from exposures to chemicals released from fires. Our earlier research has found that fire toxicants not only remain on firefighters' PPE, but are also tracked back to fire stations. The UK Firefighter Contamination Survey assesses firefighters' risk of developing cancer due to occupational exposure to fire toxins.

A Survey of Systematic Evidence Mapping Practice and the Case for Knowledge Graphs in Environmental Health and Toxicology.

Systematic evidence mapping offers a robust and transparent methodology for facilitating evidence-based approaches to decision-making in chemicals policy and wider environmental health (EH). Interest in the methodology is growing; however, its application in EH is still novel. To facilitate the production of effective systematic evidence maps for EH use cases, we survey the successful application of evidence mapping in other fields where the methodology is more established.

PFAS health effects database: Protocol for a systematic evidence map.

Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) confer waterproof, greaseproof, and non-stick properties when added to consumer products. They are also used for industrial purposes including in aqueous film forming foams for firefighting. PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment, are widely detected in human biomonitoring studies, and are of growing regulatory concern across federal, state, and local governments.

Systematic evidence maps as a novel tool to support evidence-based decision-making in chemicals policy and risk management.

Background: While systematic review (SR) methods are gaining traction as a method for providing a reliable summary of existing evidence for health risks posed by exposure to chemical substances, it is becoming clear that their value is restricted to a specific range of risk management scenarios - in particular, those which can be addressed with tightly focused questions and can accommodate the time and resource requirements of a systematic evidence synthesis.

Methods: The concept of a systematic evidence map (SEM) is defined and contrasted to the function and limitations of systematic review (SR) in the context of risk management decision-making. The potential for SEMs to facilitate evidence-based decision-making are explored using a hypothetical example in risk management priority-setting.