Your "Salty Lid" Will Not Give You Cancer

[Quickness 7]

Quote

Here is my problem. I have an issue with people chastising firemen out there whose helmets look like they've gone into "the throat of a dragon" and back. I've seen memes about this and I’ve even had people approach me about it. I was scrolling through Facebook recently and there's this photo of a burnt up helmet above some firefighters carrying a casket. It reads, "If you are OK with this, then you better accept this when you die of cancer.” COME ON. Really?

 

http://uniformstories.com/articles/opinion-category/your-salty-lid-will-not-give-you-cancer

[mstrang1 213]

The outside of your helmet may not have skin contact, but if you look in the bowl, there is cloth padding that will absorb toxins (and sweat and skin oils and whatnot).  Whenever you wash your gear, these pieces should be removed and laundered as well. Those pieces have contact with your hood or your skin.  A quick rinse of the outside of your helmet will clean it up some and you may actually be able to tell if that burnt food smell is coming from the locked apartment or your own head. 

[robert benz 344]

Your reputation is what is salty  not your gear.  that being said,  ( I know ur lid is ur badge of honor) how many guys wash their earflaps? IF they are down during a job,  they will get dirty agree?  How do you wear your flaps most of the time,  tucked up inside your lid.  So now that dirt is directly transferred to your head.   Wash your earflaps !!!

[GreatPlains588 131]

Yes, He is correct, but it does increase the odd's by "Exposure"

 

Here is a more practical read:

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/our-toxic-homes/404722/

[nfd2004 750]

I was one of the guys that thought you could judge a guy by the way his helmet looked. Up until only the last couple of years, I would laugh at somebody for washing their gear. I laughed when I saw guys fighting a car fire wearing their air packs. Then one day I saw this video put out by the Boston Fire Department. A very busy department that caught a lot of work back in "The Day". The kind of place where as a buff (up there called a spark) I saw a lot of fires and the guys on the job saw a lot of fires too.

 

  At the time, being a firefighter in a much smaller city, I was kind of envious of the way "their" helmets looked. Then I saw this video and I started to think a little bit different. I also saw some articles written that said fighting fires today is a little bit different than it was 30-40 years ago. A lot of wooden furniture had been replaced with plastic furniture. I knew that was correct by some of the things in my own house.

 

  What happen to these Boston firefighters of my generation could probably happen a lot easier today. If one article said I should wash my gear and one didn't, I think today I would go with the "washing it". I don't think I would want to go through what these guys or their families went through.

 

   Maybe some of you have already seen this. But it is probably worth repeating. Knowing what I know now, I would rather NOT take the chance. Who cares if I look like the new Probie on the rig.

 

  www.statter911.com/2015/05/04/cancer-kills-firefighters-watch-this-message-from-Boston/

 

 

Edited March 13, 2016 by nfd2004