Panel urges firefighter drug testing as part of overall wellness program
By Globe Staff
In addition to random drug and alcohol testing, a panel examining substance abuse in the Boston Fire Department called today for the creation a health and wellness program to help firefighters deal with the dangers of their work.
The three-member panel of outside specialists made seven recommendations that include augmenting the fire commissioner’s civilian staff, creating a “credentialed professional development academy” for company and chief-level officers, and offering classes to nurture new leaders and prepare firefighters for promotional exams. Panel member James M. Shannon, president of the National Fire Protection Association, urged officials to adopt the recommendations as a whole, and not just focus on the recommendation to immediately begin random drug and alcohol testing.
"If all that comes out in this report -- or that all that is covered in the media -- is random drug testing, we will feel we have failed," Shannon said at a press conference at City Hall. "Random drug testing must be part of an overall program of health and wellness ... a new emphasis must be put on the total health and fitness of members of the department."
The seven-week review was instituted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino after autopsy reports for two firefighters killed in a West Roxbury restaurant blaze indicated that one had alcohol in his system and the other had traces of cocaine. The Boston firefighters' union has consistently blocked randomly testing its members for substance use, saying it would be a significant concession in the union contract. Union officials said that their organization is willing to consider random testing, but that the city has not offered sufficient compensation in return for making such a concession.
“This is an issue of public trust,” Menino said today. “This issue of random drug testing is on the negotiating table right now with the firefighters’ union. I hope that the union negotiators will do the right thing and agree to accept.”
The call for drug and alcohol testing has grown significantly since the Aug. 29 fire that claimed the lives of firefighters Paul J. Cahill and Warren J. Payne. Autopsy results showed Cahill's blood alcohol content was 0.27, more than three times the legal limit to drive in Massachusetts, and Payne had traces of cocaine in his system, according to two government officials with knowledge of the results.
Currently, firefighters are tested for alcohol or illegal drugs before they are hired and within a six-month probationary period but are not tested after that unless supervisors witness visible signs that they are under the influence while on the job.
“The Boston Fire Department has an excellent employee assistance program, but it has inadequate means to identify which of its members has substance abuse problems,” Shannon said. “This must be rectified.”
The other members on the panel were Dr. Sheila Chapman, a practitioner of addiction and internal medicine at Boston Medical Center, and Craig P. Coy, former chief executive of the Massachusetts Port Authority.
