Firefighter Occupational Exposures (FOX) Project

The Firefighter Occupational Exposures (FOX) Project is a study of environmental chemical exposures in firefighters.  This study was conducted in partnership with the University of California Irvine’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (UCI COEH) and a Southern California fire department.  UCI COEH provides study updates to the fire department on a quarterly basis.  Firefighters were chosen because they are likely to be exposed to many toxic chemicals in the performance of their duties.  Questionnaire information and blood and urine samples were collected in 2010-2011 from 101 firefighters in Southern California.

Project Publications

Waldman et al. (2016)

Waldman JM, Gavin Q, Anderson M, Hoover S, Alvaran J, Ip HSS, Fenster L, Wu NT, Krowech G, Plummer L, Israel L, Das R, She J (2016). Exposures to environmental phenols in Southern California firefighters and findings of elevated urinary benzophenone-3 levels. Environ Int 88:281–287. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.11.014. Link to abstract on PubMed

Dobraca et al. (2015)

Dobraca D, Israel L, McNeel S, Voss R, Wang M, Gajek R, Park J-S, Harwani S, Barley F, She J, Das R (2015).  Biomonitoring in California firefighters: Metals and perfluorinated chemicals. J Occup Environ Med 57(1):88–97.  Free full text article (link is external)

Park et al. (2015)

Park J-S, Voss RW, McNeel S, Wu N, Guo T, Wang Y, Israel L, Das R, Petreas M (2015). High exposure of California firefighters to polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Environ. Sci. Technol 49(5):2948-58. doi: 10.1021/es5055918. Epub 2015 Feb 18.  Link to abstract on PubMed (link is external)