If your department has not made the switch from using 25 kHz efficiency technology to using at least 12.5 kHz efficiency technology, your department is now on the Federal Communications Commission radar screen.

Wearing dirty turnout gear is no longer cool or macho or a sign of competency (if it ever was). No, wearing contaminated turnout gear exposes you to a higher risk of developing certain types of cancer than other workers.

Frequently, we refer to the pump on fire apparatus, particularly engines, as the heart of the fire truck. Without a pump, the fire apparatus is nothing more than a very expensive personnel and equipment transportation vehicle.

Using computing technology is certainly not new to the fire and emergency services world. The CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) software products have been valuable hazardous materials response and planning tools since the first products were introduced in 1986.

By now, most of us are familiar — or should be — with using our emergency vehicles as a shield against oncoming traffic to protect first responders and civilians while operating on a roadway. In addition, we use emergency warning lights and other items such as road flares and traffic cones to capture the attention of oncoming drivers.

Fire and emergency services products manufacturers are a very inventive bunch that are constantly coming up with tools, equipment and apparatus that can help us do our jobs more safely, effectively and efficiently. This year has been no exception with the rollout of many innovative products; here are the five that most grabbed my attention.

There's probably no single piece of firefighting protective clothing that arouses more passionate discussions among firefighters than gloves. Proper fit, manual dexterity and overall durability are usually the primary topics of those discussions.

Many in the fire service have an affection for brush trucks, wildland engines, grass rigs, patrol pumpers or any one of half a dozen other names for the quintessential firefighting tool for fires in the wild. Brush trucks do it in the dirt, where their larger cousins fear to go.

Teaching a firefighter how to safely, effectively, and efficiently drive a piece of fire apparatus is one of the most awesome responsibilities that an instructor can undertake. That challenge becomes greater all the time as fewer firefighters come to the job having had at least some experience driving a large truck.

In August 1988 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Current Intelligence Bulletin 50, Carcinogenic Effects of Exposure to Diesel Exhaust, described the workplace hazard presented by diesel engine emissions. It said that studies on animals confirmed the potential carcinogenicity of whole diesel exhaust and that the exhaust should be regarded as a potential occupational carcinogen.