Fire services across Canada have put in place several measures to try to reduce exposure to contaminants, both in terms of the concentration of contaminants and the duration of exposure. The measures must be implemented equally across the country. At present, fire services with permanent structures may have more financial resources and may be more likely to effectively implement exposure reduction and decontamination measures.
One of the objectives of Bill C‑224 would be to ensure that this information is shared more widely across the country so that good practices developed in one province can also be shared in all other provinces and around the world.
The other specific element that we need to consider in Bill C‑224 is the research aspect. Are the methods we use today actually reducing exposure to contaminants and their uptake? Are there new methods or technologies that would allow us to protect firefighters and at the same time strike a balance between overprotecting, which would create problems for firefighters, and reducing the uptake of contaminants by the respiratory or dermal route?