Q&A

We began enrolling select departments in July of 2023. We are working on scheduling dates for the next few months with other departments. The timing of enrollment for departments is based on region and availability. 

A randomized controlled trial is a study design that randomly assigns participants into an intervention or a control group. 

The study will be testing three endpoints:

1. Interventions to reduce serum PFAS levels

• Your serum PFAS levels will be measured from your most recent FFCCS blood draw and reported back to you if you opted in to receive results. The most recent FFCCS blood collection will be used to access your PFAS levels for FCRP.  
• PFAS stands for ‘per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances’. PFAS are man-made chemicals with carbon-fluorine bonds that do not easily break down in the environment or in the body, leading to their nickname, “forever chemicals”.
• Firefighters with the highest PFAS levels will be preferentially randomized into blood donation, plasma donation, or control (observation-only) groups and followed for one year. Other firefighters will be randomized into Zone 2 exercise, intermittent fasting, or observation-only groups, lasting four months. A blood draw and urine collection will be completed at the end of each intervention (not including blood/plasma donation draws).

2. Interventions to reduce epigenetic age

• All firefighters in an intervention or observation-only group will receive a report on their epigenetic age when they complete the study.
• Epigenetic age is the age of your body based on how your genetic information (genes) is being expressed.

3. Interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk

• Utilizing a CPET (Cardio Pulmonary Exercise Test) in the zone 2 exercise group, we are able to look at cardiovascular conditioning
• Cardiovascular conditioning may have an impact on overall cardiovascular health

Regardless of the intervention you are randomized into, you will receive your PFAS results from your most recent FFCCS baseline blood collection within a few weeks if you opted into receive test results from the FFCCS. [GTJ(9] [HOR(10] 

All firefighters in an intervention or control (observation-only) group will receive a report on their epigenetic age when they complete all study activities.

Those in the blood and plasma intervention and control (observation-only) groups will receive a second PFAS result at the end of study after completing their intervention.

Firefighters in the zone 2 exercise intervention or control (observation-only) groups will receive the results of their pre- and post-intervention cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).

Only de-identified (all personal information removed) summary data will be shared.

We will provide de-identified summary of the study findings back to all study participants, as well as to fire service organizations in Arizona and elsewhere

The study results will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication. After publication the  findings from this study will be available for sharing with groups outside of the fire service.

You may still be able to participate in our affiliated framework study, the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS). For more information, visit the FFCCS website (https://www.ffccs.org/) or reach out to the study team at COPH-FFCCS@arizona.edu.

Participants are not paid for participation in this study.

A control group is a group of participants that do not participate in the experimental activities that are being studied. The control group is compared to the experimental group to determine if the experimental activities worked or not. 

Participants cannot change or choose their intervention group because the study design requires participants to be randomly assigned to an intervention group. If someone is placed into an intervention group and later determined to be ineligible, they may be randomly assigned to another intervention group they are eligible for. 

No, someone cannot be in multiple intervention groups. 

Yes, participants in all groups are given instructions specific to their intervention group. 

Blood and plasma donations take place at existing donation facilities such as American Red Cross, Vitalant, BPL, and CSL.

No, this is a completely voluntary study. No results received are diagnostic or clinical.