Safety gear for emergency crews on hold

BANGOR – At a time of war when the nation is at a level orange terrorism alert, emergency protective gear for police officers in Penobscot County is not being provided because of financial concerns.

Although the chances of a dirty bomb exploding somewhere in Penobscot County seem remote, local authorities say that accidents involving tanker trucks or train cars carrying hazardous materials is a realistic possibility.

Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is being made available to municipal and county law enforcement agencies in Maine, but local officials said that the safety kits from the state are coming with potentially significant financial burdens attached.

The small, book-bag-sized kits contain boots, gloves, coveralls and a mask with a specialized air filter. What they don’t contain, according to Penobscot County officials, is the funding to cover costs for physical examinations for the officers and tests to make sure the masks fit securely and don’t leak. Then there are incidental costs like overtime for bringing in off-duty officers for the tests.

Officials haven’t determined the total price tag. They are still looking for alternatives and ways to reduce the costs. But the fee for physicals to test for suitability to use the air purification masks can run $60 each, according to Bangor Fire Chief Jeffrey Cammack. Multiply that by 239 municipal and county officers in Penobscot County and the bill is more than $14,000.

With the state telling them it has no money and feeling cash-strapped themselves, Penobscot County commissioners were deliberating Tuesday about what they could do. At the meeting, commissioners asked County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Robertson to find ways of getting the PPE into circulation.

Commission Chairman Tom Davis said he wanted to make sure the kits get into the hands of law enforcement officers so that should there be an incident they would have “some kind of fighting chance.”

One preliminary option raised at the meeting was to have a nurse at the Penobscot County Jail screen the officers based on a nine-question medical survey officers are required to fill out as part of the testing for the equipment. Based on the answers on the questionnaire, officers could be approved or referred for further examination or a physical.

Cammack doesn’t think that will work for the simple reason that he’s been unable to find physicians who would give their approval based on a questionnaire.

“We haven’t found anybody willing to say someone’s fit to wear a respirator without examining them,” Cammack said.

Dr. Craig Curtis, medical director at HealthWORKS, an occupation medicine practice in Bangor, said such a basic review raises risks to the patient as well as the physician’s license to practice medicine.

Questionnaires don’t reveal conditions that the person doesn’t know or doesn’t want to make known, Curtis said. He’s had several cases where previously unknown cardiovascular problems were detected only after a physical and follow-up tests were taken.

Undetected, these and other physical problems could put the officer or firefighter at risk, possibly endangering others at the scene, he said. The PPE can be demanding on the body, with Curtis noting that the self contained breathing equipment that firefighters use – while more complicated than the PPE – require the body to work 50 percent harder.

Cammack does see some potential sources of funding that could be used to cover the mask-fitting tests, but that wouldn’t answer the need for physical fitness tests. The Bangor fire chief said that some of the $5.7 million in federal Department of Justice money that Maine is eligible for could be used to purchase the fit-test equipment that could then be made available to local agencies when needed.

Commissioners will re-examine the issue at a future meeting.