The most important concern for first responders is safety. This safety encompasses both the individual or team's well-being and the lives of those trapped or needing care. If safety comes first, then considering an individual's "wellness safety" alongside their "performance safety" must take priority.
TODAY'S ADVANCES IN SAFETY EQUIPMENT: Wearables and Personal Equipment
Wearables—such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and smart rings—as well as equipment-borne devices are advancing quickly. Biometric devices that measure, transmit, share, and store individual data can provide vital warnings to prevent injuries like exhaustion, dehydration, and thermal distress. Examples of these body-worn devices include monitors for heart rate, core-body temperature, blood glucose, and blood pressure. Solutions from companies like Heart Zones provide live, streaming group data for up to 30 responders at once, transmitting it directly to an Incident Commander (IC) at a scene or during training sessions.
Imagine you are the IC at an incident, particularly one requiring hours of continuous effort. Measuring your team's physical strain is essential to providing timely relief and recovery. Given that technology exists to manage performance safety in real time during such strenuous situations, doesn't adopting it become an imperative?
Wellness safety is crucial both for operational readiness and for the long-term health of frontline responders. Today, methods and products exist to monitor health and fitness data continuously. The key question to ask is: are rescue workers physically and emotionally fit for duty? Managing health trends such as sleep, nutrition, fitness levels (strength, endurance, speed), and emotional well-being is vital for performance success. Examples of wellness gear include respiratory training devices (to increase breathing capacity), VO2 max monitors (for aerobic capacity), thermal training equipment, strength tools, and mobile apps.
THE FIRST RESPONDER DILEMMA
There are differing viewpoints regarding the application of safety and readiness tech for first responders. A notable divide exists between administrators, department leaders, frontline staff, and union organizers, raising key questions:
Should wellness and performance safety tech be used strictly in training and non-operational settings, or during live incidents as well?
How do agencies handle serious privacy concerns and cultural pushback?
Are there differing opinions among stakeholders on using personal safety tech in training versus live emergency responses?
From a labor perspective, does wearable safety tech present more risk or opportunity?
For many, using valuable, life-saving information from these devices to enable early health detection and injury prevention outweighs the privacy risks. Could agencies like NIST, UL, and NIOSH use wearable data during burn simulations to track critical physiological responses?
That is the dilemma. A clear divide remains between emergency personnel and department leaders regarding real-time or stored biometric data. Research suggests that frontline personnel tend to be more cautious, while operational leaders strongly support using personal safety tech—particularly in non-operational settings and training.
Closing Thoughts
Provided strong policies and protections are in place, wearable and personal safety tech offers vast opportunities to protect frontline workers against everyday hazards. Given the time and agency, first responder leaders can develop and implement policies that enhance both individual safety and overall wellness. Legal and ethical considerations will naturally form the core of these frameworks. After all, if safety comes first, isn't it time?