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Review
. 2025 Jun;16(2):145-155.
doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2025.04.003. Epub 2025 Apr 23.

Work Exposome and Related Disorders of Firefighters: An Overview of Systematized Reviews

Alexis Descatha  1   2 , Hugues Dousseau  1 , Sabrina Pitet  1 , Francis Magnolini  3 , Neil McMillan  4 , Neil Mangelsdorf  5 , Rick Swan  6 , Jean-Marie Steve  7 , Didier Pourret  3 , Marc Fadel  1
Affiliations
Review

Work Exposome and Related Disorders of Firefighters: An Overview of Systematized Reviews

Alexis Descatha et al. Saf Health Work. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Firefighters experience many exposures associated with negative health outcomes. Because of this, there are many studies on the subject. Our objective here was to conduct an umbrella review of systematized reviews to identify firefighting activities and related exposures associated with negative health outcomes.

Methods: A comprehensive search of the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus (Health) was conducted using all firefighter systematized reviews. We extracted the country and date of the review, type of firefighter, types of exposure, and related health outcomes. Risk of bias was based on AMSTAR-2 checklist.

Results: In 1130 studies, 47 systematized reviews were included, mostly in the last 5 years and from North America and Australia. The topics were diverse, ranging from general aspects to specific exposures, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, wildland fires, organizational, traumatic, or psychological stress exposure, and from prevention or surveillance to specific health effects (e.g., cancer, mental health, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular, and pulmonary health, etc.). The risk of bias assessment using the selection grid shows a significant heterogeneity, though some studies were of very high quality.

Discussion: This umbrella review provides a comprehensive description of systematized reviews describing populations of firefighters, including information on exposure, health outcomes, and illness/injury prevention.

Keywords: cancer; firefighter; occupational; public health; systematic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors are paid by their institution.

Figures

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Flow chart.
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Translational summary.
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Fig. 3
Risk of bias, AMSTAR-2 evaluation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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