Toxicity of Plastic Can Be Worse Than CO, Metro Chiefs Are Told
Lethal gases emitted by burning plastics create a toxicity problem that is not fully understood but is more serious than carbon monoxide, the Metropolitan Committee of the IAFC was told at its annual conference in San Diego April 5-7.
The metro chiefs also heard speakers discuss some of the reasons for strikes by fire fighters and learned about implementing an organizational development program to improve fire department management.
At a business session, the Metro Committee passed a resolution supporting the continuation of the United States Fire Administration, which is due to be terminated at the end of September. The metro chiefs “strongly” requested the “allocation of $8.5 million in the 1983 federal budget” to continue the USFA. The resolution pointed out that the USFA “has been instrumental in the development and implementation of many cost-effective fire safety programs to assist state and local governments in meeting their responsibilities.”
We don’t really know
In a discussion of toxicity in fires, Gordon Vickery of the Foundation for Fire Safety said he was convinced that the common acceptance of carbon monoxide as the cause of most fire deaths is pure baloney. He charged carbon monoxide cause given for the deaths at the MGM Grand Hotel fire for all victims is totally untrue and he said “we don’t really know what specifically killed 100 of the 130 hotel deaths” in recent months.
An inquiry into the deaths at the hotel fire in Houston that was conducted by Vickery’s foundation found that the victims did not die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Vickery declared that the deaths were undoubtedly caused by products burned in the room where the fire occurred.
Vickery explained that some coroners and physicians regard a 12 to 18 percent carboxyhemoglobin figure as lethal and therefore they don’t look for other gases.As a result, he added, carbon monoxide gets a higher than warranted credit for fire deaths.
Vickery noted that of the numerous standards and codes affecting fire safety, not one of them addresses the toxicity problem of fires although 80 percent of all fire deaths result from toxic fire gases.
Effects of toxic gases
The characteristics and effects of toxic gases from the researchers’ standpoint were described by Merritt Birky of the Foundation for Fire Safety. He warned that PVC commonly has delayed reaction and fire fighters can be knocked down 8 to 10 hours after exposure to PVC smoke.
Birky, who previously worked for the National Bureau of Standards, voiced the opinion that animals do not correctly reflect the effects of carbon monoxide. He said that tests with rodents undervalue the toxicity of synthetics and that humans are probably 10 times more sensitive to the toxic emissions of synthetics.
Birky said that there is little information on inhalation injuries from the smoke of plastics and at present, this information concerns only fatalities. He stated that antimony, cadmium and lead were found in the upper respiratory tracts of Maryland fatal fire victims in the ’70s, and he expressed the belief that these came from synthetics. Birky also noted that synthetics release a higher amount of BTUs than ordinary fuels and we are adding these high-heat-producing materials to buildings.
Birky said that the sharing of toxicity information is most important and he declared that it is time to place toxicity requirements in codes now that the equipment is available for measuring toxicity.
Discusses CO effects
In a discussion of the effects of smoke on fire fighters, Dr. Richard Stewart said he suspected that carbon monoxide is responsible for heart problems and he urged that stress tests be given as part of the physical exams in fire departments. He said that in Racine, Wis., a medical monitoring program that includes stress and other tests costs about $250 per person.
The physician explained that repeated low-level exposures to carbon monoxide can build up significantly during a 24-hour shift. A level of more than 5 percent carbon monoxide does damage, Stewart stated, and he added that in Milwaukee and Racine, Wis., fire fighters receive oxygen when their monitored carbon monoxide level is above 10 percent.
Stewart listed the chemicals and asphyxiants commonly encountered by fire departments as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide. He added that irritants are the biggest problem and they are divided between the water soluble type, which results in a simple attack on the upper airway, and the pulmonary edema type, which is more deadly.
Need toxicity knowledge
The lack of knowledge in the fire service about the toxicity of burning plas-_ tics was stressed by Larry Kenny, retired chief of the Miami Fire Department. He pointed out that plastics and synthetics burn with extremely high temperatures and give off a vast amount of smoke and toxic gases. Moreover, Kenny continued, some plastics continue to give off toxic gases after flaming has ceased.
“We know very little about the longterm effect of these gases,” Kenny commented.
Management system
A look at an innovative approach to fire department management was introduced by Chief Earle G. Roberts of San Diego, who said that “the key word in organizational development is definitely change.” He explained that team building supplies the building blocks in organizational development (OD).
Roberts stated that one result of the OD program in San Diego was the shifting of code enforcement responsibility from the fire prevention bureau to the fire companies. Quarterly objectives are published and then measured at the end of each quarter, he added.
Starting the discussion of organizational development, Laura Buchbinder, deputy assistant administrator for fire protection management at the United States Fire Administration, said that the USFA provided a team building assistance pilot program in San Diego. In turn, San Diego provided technical assistance in team building to Greenville, S.C., Fort Worth and Los Angeles City.
Buchbinder commented that management commitment is essential and team building is worth paying for because it solves problems through a rational process. However, team building is not a magic panacea, Buchbinder warned, and she cautioned that a skilled facilitator is essential for success of the program.
Getting started
Diane Hoskins, director of administrative services for the San Diego Fire Department, explained that the organizational development process includes a planning program, orientation of participants, collection and analyzation of productivity data, survey of employee problems and views, customer or user (persons who have used fire department services), data analysis feedback, action planning, implementation (getting employees involved), and evaluation.
The San Diego Fire Department first asked other city employees to be facilitators and conducted a three-day senior staff workshop at a location remote from the fire department. Then, an employee organizational development task force was established with representatives from all fire department ranks. The task force conducted an employee survey to determine existing problems and suggest solutions. Also surveyed were local councils, senior citizens, victims of fire, the city manager, the city council and the news media.
When it came time to form problem groups, 193 employees, approximately 25 percent of the fire department, signed up for this activity. As a result of the large turnout, some 8 to 10 groups are planned. Their mission is to research problems and present recommendations. If the organizational development leaders approve, then the recommendations go to the senior staff of the fire department.
Finds system works
Going into the organizational OD process is a difficult decision to make, said Coleman Conrad, San Diego deputy city manager. However, he added, organizational development makes his job easier
Chief H.L. McMillen of Fort Worth, who has engaged in organizational development, commented, “It does in fact work.” He said he had a need to create a team atmosphere in his fire department. He explained that his senior staff members had competed through the years in civil service and also had turf issues. Now, he said, most of the key issues among the staff are resolved.
McMillen mentioned some disadvantages in OD. He said team members are not too supportive when the chief has to make certain decisions and some people use the team as a cop-out and bring problems to the team that they should have decided themselves.
Robin Reid, a San Diego organizational development specialist who is a consultant for the city, commented that “starting on an organizational development program is like getting married.” The city management’s views, he warned, can make or break the progam, but if it is done right, it remains for the life of the organization. Reid cautioned that you have to expect things will get worse before they get better and that organizations with more than 1000 personnel may be impervious to the OD technique. He also commented that changes will take time—a three to fiveyear process—and the program should be run by the organization—not by consultants.
Team building has to start at the top, advised San Diego Fire Marshal Charles Van Rickley, and the effort must be sincere or it will fail. He felt that the increased time required for meetings is a burden at first and those working on the organizational development have to conssistently follow the program and not cut corners.
Speaking on the union viewpoint of OD, Ron Saathoff, president of IAFF Local 145 of the San Diego Fire Department, advised getting local union officers involved early in the program. He said that organizational development can be a start in a few field—participatory management—and that it means the top officers will be yielding some of their authority.
Saathoff commented that OD could allow management to circumvent unions, but that has not been done in San Diego. He explained that the procedure on labor issues is for a task force to make its recommendations on labor matters to the local union board, which will then transmit the recommendations ot the fire department senior staff. He felt that some recommendations made by a task force could be handled directly by the fire department while others would go tp to contract negotiations.
What lies ahead
In a look to the future of the fire service, Chief John C. Gerard of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, suggested that if the management of hazardous materials incidents is going to continue to be the responsibility of the fire service then fire chiefs should prepare for this by addressing all facets of the problem. Gerard suggested that fire chiefs should decide w’hat is to be done with hazardous materials—-possibly including such things as the management of dump sites—or else somebody outside the fire service will determine these questions.
Improvements in fire service techniques, Gerard predicted, will be dictated by water shortages, an increasing fuel problem, labor issues and the cost of apparatus. As for the water problems he saw a continuing lack of water in the West and a need to repair or replace old water systems in the East.
As more women enter the work force and the numbers in the working population drop, the issue will be where to get fire fighters without hiring women rather than whether to hire them, Gerard commented.
Gerard also saw the entrance of volunteers in paid departments—not as fire fighters but as experts in various areas. He saw the advisability of using voluntary aid for administering certain tasks, but he questioned if the voluntary movement will extend to fire fighters. However, he pointed out that working with volunteers in management areas is the same as working with them in fire suppression. He predicted that there will be more combination departments having both volunteer and career people.
Discussion of strikes
In urging the metro chiefs to minimize the causes of strikes to reduce the number of them, Joe Kilgallon of Ruttenberg & Associates of Washington, D.C., said, “It’s not the specifics, it’s more the perception of how they’re being treated,” that cause fire fighters to strike in the major cities. Kilgallon, a consultant to the IAFF, pointed out that some strikes had occurred after fire fighters had felt that they had been treated unfairly by their municipalities.
As for a municipality’s contention of inability to pay wage increases, Kilgallon charged that in very few instances does a city introduce hard data in support of its position.
The speaker also agreed on the value of a labor management committee and stressed that it should be a research or advisory body. He explained that it gives an opportunity for the union to talk on issues that cannot be discussed frankly in negotiations and it provides a means of experimenting without making the experiment part of a contract.
Management viewpoint
Looking at the management side of the strike issue, John Liebert, of Liebert, Cassidy & Frierson of Los Angeles, observed that from a political point of view, the realization is growing that this is not the time to strike.
He told the metropolitan chiefs, “Legal actions generally do not resolve strikes.”
Saying that a municipality may try an injunctive relief as a legal or political move, he advised that legal actions for damages “mean a great deal more to a local union.” Liebert urged the chiefs to regard an advisory award in arbitration as a stepping stone to further negotiations and he pointed out the inadvisability of summarily rejecting such an award.
Comparable work
Liebert commented that comparable work has become a bigger issue now than parity with police. Comparable work, he explained, involves jobs that have Continued on page 55 traditionally been held by women who historically have been underpaid for work that has been evaluated to be as worthy of jobs men held at higher salaries.
Metro Chiefs
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In response to questioning, Liebert suggested a labor management committee as a means of attaining meaningful communications in a fire department. He warned that such a committee should not be a negotiating committee but should be used to help improve communications and limit points of conflict.
When the financial position of a city is an issue, Liebert explained, an arbitrator may say that there cannot be an inability to pay because the city can realign the distribution of its resources.
Tells of slowdown
A slowdown in his department, said Chief Ronald Lewis of Richmond, Va., occurred during a parity dispute. The chief explained that the slowdown occurred after a consultant’s study proposed that fire fighters should be paid 12 percent less than policemen. The proposed percentage was later reduced to a 2 ⅛ percent disparity. The slowdown involved a job safety action plan and response times rose, Lewis stated. At the same time, the Black Professional Fire Fighters refused to participate in the slowdown or consider a strike.
Chief William Stamm of Milwaukee told how with the cooperation of union and management, the Gage and Babcock study recommending the closing of a number of fire stations was defeated a few years ago.
“They didn’t get away with it when union and management got together,” Stamm commented.
