Fatty Firefighters To The Rescue

if they are overweight they could be jeopardising lives

A new study from the world famous Harvard School of Public Health shows that an increasing number of emergency services personnel are overweight and obese. The research which was done in the state of Massachusetts looked at the health data of almost 400 ambulance operators and firefighters over a three year time period. They reported that almost ¾ of the new recruits in the state were either overweight or obese.

This is extremely worrying because in order for fire fighters and ambulance personnel to do their job to the best of their abilities being physically fit and slim is important. Because they are dealing with life threatening situations if they are overweight they could be jeopardising the lives of the people they are supposed to be helping.

The image that most people have of say firefighters is one of individuals who are fitter and stronger than the average person. This image is fast being eroded in America because of a lack of thinner applicants which forces the emergency services to increasingly recruit people with weight problems.

The research which was written up in the clinical journal Obesity should serve as an eye opener to the government in America [and in the UK!] to start doing something serious about the problem. The evidence of the seriousness of the problem is overwhelming yet governments consistently fail to tackle the problem and it is now becoming a pandemic of catastrophic proportions. Nations must never become complacent with obesity.

Obese firefighters? Whatever next! Soon we are going to be faced with overweight fighting soldiers. Other reports that we have seen at Ukmedix News claim that the average soldier serving in Iraq or Afghanistan is also considerably heavier than the average fighting soldier was a decade ago.