We know those who chose to become firefighters risk their lives for us every day. They are also risk their health.

Firefighters are exposed to hazardous chemicals, toxic gases, vapors or particles – all of which can cause serious health issues including hearing loss. For firefighters in Detroit, and other postindustrial cites, heavy metal exposure, particularly to lead and cadmium, is a major cause.

Cadmium, a poisonous metal that has been used to electroplate materials to protect them from corrosion, was heavily used in the automobile industry and is a major source of contamination in Detroit. In addition, more than 90 percent of buildings in Detroit were built prior to 1980 and are likely to contain lead-based paints.

Hearing loss is one adverse health outcome associated with long-term environmental exposure to lead and cadmium.

The video below shows the intensity of many fires.

With the help of funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, a Wayne State University professor, Samson Jamesdaniel, is researching gene-environment interactions to determine the association between environmental exposure to lead and cadmium and hearing loss in Detroit firefighters.

The nearly $400,000, three-year research project, “Heavy metal exposure, genetic predisposition and auditory dysfunction: A cross-sectional study in a high-risk urban cohort,” will be led by Jamesdaniel, a Ph.D. and assistant professor in the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State University.

“We plan to test the hearing of 200 firefighters from the City of Detroit, assay bone lead and urinary cadmium levels, and assess the frequency of two distinct variants of an antioxidant gene (SOD2) in order to determine the interactions among environmental exposure to heavy metals, genetic factors and hearing loss,” says Jamesdaniel.

The outcomes of the research are expected to provide a platform for development of preventive measures for minimizing harmful exposure to multiple environmental ototoxicants and reducing the risk of hearing impairment in high-risk populations, he says.

“The ultimate goal will be to apply this knowledge to human remediation studies in this vulnerable population, and identify preventative measures that will protect firefighters and others from hearing loss caused by environmental exposure,” says Jamesdaniel.

The grant number for this National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences project is ES028750.

– Lead photo by Mike Ferdinande

  Detroit firefighters, health issues for Detroit firefighters, Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at Wayne State University, loss of hearing in firefighters in Detroit, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, NIH grants for Wayne State University, Samson Jamesdaniel, Wayne State University