[DRB]

that die of heart attacks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17704748/

More than three years after President Bush signed a law granting federal benefits to families of firefighters, police officers and EMTs who die of heart attacks and strokes on the job, not a dollar has been paid. The U.S. Justice Department has denied all 34 claims that have been decided, and has yet to act on more than 200 others, MSNBC.com has learned.

In the Hometown Heroes Act of 2003, Congress said that heart attacks and strokes on the job should be presumed to be line-of-duty deaths, making survivors eligible for federal benefits.

"I think the Department of Justice has intentionally misinterpreted the intent of Congress and the president," the sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., told MSNBC.com on Wednesday.

The denials come to light as a new study demonstrates that firefighters are at much higher risk of heart attacks when fighting fires or responding to alarms. In the study to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that firefighters face up to 100 times their normal risk of heart attack while working at a fire.

How we long for the days of John Ashcroft.

 

[BurlyShirley]

...made me think of something.

Ever go to a firehouse and notice that they always have tons of gym equipment, weights, treadmills etc. yet all the firemen are all big fatasses just sitting there watching Maury Povich and growing stupider mustaches?
Maybe its just TN.

 

[N8 v2.0]

i'd have to say that dying of a heart attack is nothing like being killed in the line of duty.

 

[N8 v2.0]

...made me think of something.

Ever go to a firehouse and notice that they always have tons of gym equipment, weights, treadmills etc. yet all the firemen are all big fatasses just sitting there watching Maury Povich and growing stupider mustaches?
Maybe its just TN.

deputy sherriffs are even worse!

 

[reflux]

...made me think of something.

Ever go to a firehouse and notice that they always have tons of gym equipment, weights, treadmills etc. yet all the firemen are all big fatasses just sitting there watching Maury Povich and growing stupider mustaches?
Maybe its just TN.

Firefighters in So Cal seem to be in generally good shape; can't say I've ever noticed a group of fat assed firefighters.

n 8 is right; sheriffs are often fat asses.

 

[Toshi]

...made me think of something.

Ever go to a firehouse and notice that they always have tons of gym equipment, weights, treadmills etc. yet all the firemen are all big fatasses just sitting there watching Maury Povich and growing stupider mustaches?
Maybe its just TN.

that's basically the conclusion of the new england journal article on this topic, that initially full-time firefighters are in great shape, but they don't keep up with it (and that volunteer firefighters are never held to the same standard even initially).

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/356/12/1261

 

[N8 v2.0]

http://www.bleedingskull.com/features/myfatsheriff.html

 

[ohio]

Well, like many of you here, I disagree with the premise of the act, so I'm glad to see that it was simply more empty posturing by the president capitalizing on the deaths of thousands of americans, and not a real gesture that would actually cost us money.