VIDEO: Pregnant firefighters across the nation are struggling with their departments’ reproductive health policies. A nonprofit created in Washington is working to change that.
Maia Brown has been a firefighter in Washington for 14 years. She said when she first started working, the thought that her career had any effect on her reproductive health never came to mind.
“But as time passed, something inspired me to look into it,” she said. And when she did look into it, Brown said she found that most of the research focused on male firefighters.
“But it didn’t seem like too far of a stretch to imagine that if it’s affecting the men, it’s affecting the women too,” Brown said.
The exposures at play include toxins from fighting active fires, heat, stress, sleep disruption, chemicals in cleaning supplies, and exhaust in the apparatus bay, to name a few.
So, back in 2018, Brown started a website, meant to be a placeholder for the research she could find. “Over time it’s evolved,” she said. “There’s become such an incredible community of people that are also invested in this.”
KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle
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