NFPA 1582

OVERVIEW

NFPA 1582 Standard on Occupational Medical Programs for Fire Departments, provides a comprehensive roadmap for fire departments to assess firefighter readiness to perform essential job functions, while Chapter 8 focuses on strength and aerobic readiness for full-duty status. You don’t want to wait until a medical issue arises before reviewing the nuances of NFPA 1582, this should be done well in advance. This helps ensure that everyone involved, including your fire department physician, labor union representatives, and entire workforce are familiar with the NFPA 1582 process and its intent. That intent is to ensure the safety of firefighters.
 There are many benefits to NFPA 1582, one of which is the ability to identify adverse health issues. While precursors to cardiovascular events often remain dormant until they cascade into a precipitating event, return-to-duty evaluations serve as an added opportunity to assess firefighters for potential cardiovascular precursors that, if identified early, can be successfully managed through lifestyle and dietary modification, medication and other necessary medical intervention.