NFPA Journal - January/February 2018 - 46

Perspectives
Q&A

CLEAN BY
DESIGN

Firefighters have always lived and worked in fire
stations polluted with layers of cancer-causing
toxic chemicals. Architect and cancer survivor Paul
Erickson thinks there is a better and healthier way.
Interview conducted and edited by Jesse Roman
y virtue of doing its job, the fire
service has inadvertently created a
devastatingly effective "carcinogen
harvesting system," according to
architect Paul Erickson.
It works like this: Firefighters go out to a fire
call where they spend hours immersed in toxic
chemicals, which seep into their protective gear,
trucks, and equipment. Then they bring this
contaminated gear back to the station where it
off-gases into the air and onto the surfaces where
they eat, sleep, live, and work. "This cycle then
repeats over the course of days, weeks, months,
and years," Erickson explains, increasing the levels
of contamination in their living environment.
Exposure to carcinogens is the main culprit
blamed for the alarmingly high rates of cancer
in firefighters, which several studies have shown
are substantially higher than cancer rates in the

Past mistakes
Traditional station
features, such
as PPE lockers in
apparatus bays, can
have devastating
long-term health
consequences
on firefighters,
experts say.

46 | NFPA JOURNAL * J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8

public at large. Millions of dollars and countless
hours are being spent to address the issue through
research, education, and new ways of doing
things. That includes a hard look at how fire stations-the epicenter of this carcinogen harvesting
system-are designed.
Erickson, who co-founded the Virginia-based
firm LeMay Erickson Willcox Architects in 1986,
has had a hand in more than 100 public safety
building projects over his career, and since 2012
has been at the forefront of the emerging effort to
reimagine firehouse design to control the spread
of cancer-causing chemicals.
The first firehouse designed using these new
concepts is now under construction in New Jersey,
and Erickson said more are on the way. NFPA
Journal spoke with Erickson to discuss these new
fire station design concepts, what departments
can do today-short of building a new station-to
mitigate risks, and about his own battle with
cancer over the last year.
When did the idea of designing firehouses to
mitigate cancer risk first get on your radar?
Our interest in the subject grew out of our prior
commitment to design stations for the health and
well being of the crew, which is something we
have focused on for the better part of 10 years.
I was presented with some of the facts about
firefighter cancer about five years ago and I felt
challenged to design a station where incidents of
cancer would be reduced. In 2012, Cindy Ell, president of the Firefighter Cancer Support Network,
asked me why, with all the contamination present,
don't we apply containment concepts of HAZMAT
incidents to fire stations. When I heard the question, it resonated in such a meaningful way that
I've continued to develop the concepts on my own
ever since.
In a nutshell, why are firehouses such
hazardous environments?
Any incident that involves smoke also includes
exposure to carcinogens and toxic chemicals. Any
equipment and clothing taken into service in
response to those calls is exposed to those contaminants. Unless a thorough decontamination
process occurs on the scene, those contaminants
are then conveyed back to the station. Unless you
carefully and thoroughly decontaminate all the
clothing, all the equipment, all the apparatus,
and even your bodies by taking a shower, you are
potentially allowing those contaminants to be
spread within the station itself.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - January/February 2018