I am a Fire Captain in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where I have worked for the past 33 years. I started in the department in 1978, when a large portion of our training centered around extinguishing fires which were ignited in oil, donated by the local power company. This practice had gone on for 10 to 15 years prior to my training. My class got a little out of control one day, and we had to walk and crawl through the oil pits as our punishment. Very quickly, we all developed a serious rash. Somewhere between that day and 1980 the oil was tested and found to contain extremely high levels of PCB. In 1982 the oil was removed from the training academy. Unfortunately, those who trained with the oil
developed serious health problems.

I spent 12 years as a founding member of our Haz Mat team. I was present at many, many spills involving chlorine, pesticides of all types and lots of hydrocarbon spills – gasoline, benzene and other highly toxic chemicals. Then there were incidents at industrial sites where research and development were going on, and people weren’t willing to be truthful about exactly what had been released.

For all firefighters, the effects of these kinds of exposures build and build over the years. They gradually get worse and worse, but you don’t really notice. For the last 3 or 4 years before I did the detox program, I had a steady low-grade headache 24 hours a day. It was like I had a band around my head. Sometimes the pain would be more intense than others, but it never went away. I had a lot of sinus issues. I couldn’t sleep more than a couple of hours at a stretch. I was tired all the time. When I came to do the program, one of the eye openers was the exposure questionnaire. I happened to do it with another firefighter on my shift, and we started bouncing off each other, jogging our memories about exposure incidents. By the end, we wondered how it was that we were still alive!

Even so, I didn’t really realize how bad my symptoms were until I completed the program and they were gone. My headaches disappeared. I haven’t slept like this in years.
My girlfriend has noticed a change too – in fact, she waited 10 months to tell me about it because she wanted to be sure the change was permanent. Before detox, she had noticed that every 49 days or so, like clockwork, I’d become completely unhappy for several days. Nothing would cheer me up.
She called it my “male PMS.” That’s gone too. Overall, the program has made me happier with life. Because I am feeling so much better, I am more positive in everything I do.

William Hamer
Captain, Station 32,
Anne Arundel County Fire Department ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................NEXT