{"id":330947,"date":"2026-06-10T17:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/330947\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T17:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:55:12","slug":"how-two-texas-tech-researchers-hope-to-keep-firefighters-safer-june-2026-texas-tech-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/330947\/","title":{"rendered":"How Two Texas Tech Researchers Hope to Keep Firefighters Safer | June 2026 | Texas Tech Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Older firefighters could unintentionally face greater cardiac risk under a new wellness
\n standard.<\/p>\n

\t\tCREATORS<\/p>\n

\"Portrait
\n\"Portrait<\/p>\n

The rhythmic howl of a siren fills the nighttime air of a sleepy neighborhood. A firetruck
\n seemingly appears from nowhere and pulls beside a building engulfed in bright orange-yellow
\n flames. Firefighters pour out of their red transport, shouldering over 50 pounds of
\n equipment. They are greeted by a wall of smoke and heat that causes their lungs to
\n scream. With little regard for their own safety, the firefighters enter the building,
\n poised to save the day.<\/p>\n

If this feels like a scene straight from Hollywood, it\u2019s not far off. Running into
\n burning buildings is often the first, if not the only thing people imagine when envisioning
\n a firefighter\u2019s job. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people struggle to understand that firefighters are mostly responding to medical
\n calls, doing a lot of CPR and extracting of civilians,\u201d said Jacob Mota<\/a>, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Sport Management<\/a> at Texas Tech University<\/a>. \u201cFires are very high risk, but they\u2019re much lower in volume.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mota\u2019s research focuses on studying occupational athletes, namely first responders
\n like firefighters. He wants to make sure they\u2019re as safe and healthy as possible.<\/p>\n

Firefighters, Mota notes, face the same health issues as the broader public, including
\n obesity and cardiovascular disease. In fact, a 2024 study by the National Fire Protection
\n Association (NFPA) showed that nearly 50% of firefighter deaths were attributed to
\n a sudden cardiac event. Firefighters are far more likely to die due to a cardiac event
\n than they are responding to operating at a fire scene.<\/p>\n

So, imagine Mota\u2019s surprise when his team at the Neuromuscular and Occupational Performance Laboratory<\/a> (NOPL) realized the new health and wellness guidelines set by the NFPA may actually
\n be placing firefighters in harm\u2019s way. Older firefighters in their 50s and 60s could
\n have an easier time passing the new standard than younger firefighters in their 20s.<\/p>\n

And this wasn\u2019t by a small margin either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found something like a 35-times increased likelihood of passing the new framework
\n as you get older, depending on one\u2019s age category,\u201d Mota said.<\/p>\n

An eye-catching finding would have been older firefighters being two or three times
\n more likely to pass this new standard. But this? This was a big deal.<\/p>\n

Fanning the Flames of Research<\/p>\n

The flame for Mota\u2019s interests in firefighter health and safety sparked long before
\n he returned to Texas Tech as a faculty member.<\/p>\n

Mota grew up in a small West Central Texas town called Ballinger, about 40 miles south
\n of Abilene. After graduating high school with 54 other classmates, Mota attended Cisco
\n Junior College and joined the local fire department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just a \u2018probie\u2019 firefighter and did whatever I was told,\u201d Mota joked about
\n his brief tenure. \u201cI was 19 and very wet behind the ears. I joined to serve my community
\n and my state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JakeJacob Mota<\/p>\n

Mota soon transferred to Texas Tech with the goal of majoring in music and joining
\n the Goin\u2019 Band from Raiderland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, his time in the band taught him two things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, music was going to be more of a hobby than an academic pursuit. After seeing
\n fellow saxophone players breeze through the audition music flawlessly, Mota went and
\n changed his major not long after band auditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second was how athletic marching band members needed to be.<\/p>\n

Mota recalled seeing a YouTube video where drummers went through their performance
\n wearing an oxygen monitor and the video\u2019s creator talking about the aerobic capacity
\n requirements needed to perform a halftime show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to learn about exercise science and kinesiology because of that one video.
\n And that was that: I was an exercise science major,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mota\u2019s introduction to kinesiology research came shortly after. He responded to a
\n Facebook post asking for participants in a resistance training study. Matt Stock,
\n then a Texas Tech faculty member and now at the University of Central Florida, told
\n Mota he was too familiar with resistance training to be a participant but could help
\n on the research side of things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As he earned his kinesiology master\u2019s degree at Texas Tech and human movement science
\n doctorate at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Mota\u2019s
\n passion for research deepened. He looked for ways to blend his burgeoning passion
\n with his firefighter experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a unique insight from a research standpoint,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like
\n to wear bunker gear, to be in a structure fire or to be at a motor vehicle collision.
\n It gives me a lot of perspective about what the job is. It\u2019s so much more than putting
\n on gear and running into a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mota returned to Texas Tech as an assistant professor in 2022 to continue his work
\n on first responders and help develop students into the next generation of researchers.
\n He was recently promoted to associate professor with tenure, effective September 2026.<\/p>\n

At the NOPL, Mota views undergraduate students as the backbone of the lab\u2019s progress.
\n They\u2019re often running their own experiments within 30 days of starting at NOPL.<\/p>\n

\n

For graduate<\/a> students like Payton Miller<\/a>, the relationship is like that of a colleague. She isn\u2019t in the lab to just be a
\n yes person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable voicing my opinion and saying, \u2018No, I don\u2019t think this should be
\n like this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe take each other seriously and professionally, but we\u2019ve
\n also developed a friendship, which I think has made this experience great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller began pursuing her doctorate in exercise physiology<\/a> in 2024 and, much like Mota, has a personal interest in researching firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a family of firefighters. My grandpa worked his way up to senior captain
\n in the Houston Fire Department, and my uncle served with the department for decades,\u201d
\n she said. \u201cKnowing the wear and tear the profession can have on the body motivated
\n me to pursue research aimed at helping firefighters stay healthy and capable throughout
\n their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaytonPayton Miller<\/p>\n

Miller thought she\u2019d have time to ease into the program and get her feet settled.
\n She thought it might be years into her research career that she\u2019d begin to impact
\n firefighters or the policies meant to keep them safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only months.<\/p>\n

Moving Targets<\/p>\n

Firefighters must complete mandated yearly health and wellness screenings, and NFPA
\n 1582 was previously established as the comprehensive medical standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of the evaluation assessed the firefighters\u2019 absolute aerobic capacity, or a
\n measure of how well the body pulls oxygen from the air and distributes it to the muscles
\n through the cardiovascular system. This is more commonly known as VO2 peak and is
\n measured in milliliters per kilogram per minute. A common way to assess aerobic capacity
\n is to have the subject run on a treadmill for a specific amount of time while wearing
\n a mask and other physiological sensors.<\/p>\n

Aerobic capacity could be considered akin to the engine that runs the body. Essentially,
\n the lower a person\u2019s aerobic capacity, the more likely they are to suffer from cardiac
\n events during strenuous exercise.<\/p>\n

Under NFPA 1582, all firefighters had the same VO2 peak target of 42 mL\/kg\/min to
\n be considered fit for duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NFPA 1580 was established in 2025 as the new standard. Rather than a singular target
\n for all firefighters to hit, the new target was determined based on age and sex. Firefighters
\n needed to make sure they were above the 35th percentile of the general population
\n to pass, which changed the required ranges and failing scores.<\/p>\n

On the surface, accounting for age and sex makes some sense. One would expect the
\n body of a 20-year-old would operate differently than a 40-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mota connected with one of his professional collaborators, Mike Conner from Front
\n Line Mobile Health, who helps fire departments administer yearly medical exams. As
\n part of the work, patients\u2019 data are collected to be utilized in studies by researchers
\n like Mota. Though Mota has run studies and collected the data himself by working with
\n fire departments in the Lubbock and West Texas areas, partnering with his collaborator
\n in this instance allowed him to have a data pool consisting of thousands of firefighters
\n across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mota tasked Miller with running the first set of analyses, and she generated models
\n which compared the benchmarks between the new and old standards.<\/p>\n

To visualize the results, Miller organized the data into a stacked bar graph with
\n each bar having three color portions: green represented \u00a0firefighters who met the
\n unrestricted-duty standard, who had a VO2 peak over 42; yellow represented firefighters
\n who had a VO2 peak between 28-42 and should or must participate in a prescribed aerobic
\n program; and red represented firefighters with a VO2 peak below 28 and were restricted
\n from duty. The firefighters were separated into five age groups: 20-29, 30-39, 40-49,
\n 50-59 and 60+.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the older NFPA 1582, the results looked exactly as Miller expected. As the age
\n groups increased, the proportion of firefighters meeting the unrestricted-duty standard
\n steadily decreased. The green bars at the top get smaller, almost creating an upside-down
\n descending staircase. Meanwhile, the red bars at the bottom become larger, creating
\n an ascending staircase. The yellow bars stay toward the middle but move up slightly
\n as the age groups increase. The age-related decline was clear throughout the dataset.<\/p>\n

When she analyzed the same firefighters under the new NFPA 1580 standard that required
\n firefighters score above the 35th percentile of their age group, gone were the multicolored
\n staircases showing gradual change. The results were unrecognizable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh. There\u2019s something really big here,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Stacked\"BarGraphs show proportion of male individuals in each age group meeting the previous
\n NFPA 1582 and the revised NFPA 1580 aerobic capacity categories based on VO2peak (mL\/kg\/min).<\/p>\n

For starters, the 20-29 group\u2019s results were completely inverted in this new standard.
\n Less than 20% would have passed while over 60% would have failed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next age group saw a massive spike in passing results, with about 70% passing
\n and less than 20% failing. This result was consistent in the next two age groups as
\n well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most concerning result came with the 60+ group, in which the passing rate
\n jumped over 80%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miller was worried she made a mistake in the analysis and brought her concerns to
\n Mota, who reran it himself and got the same results: The NFPA 1580 was requiring lower
\n VO2 peak scores for older firefighters, enabling those with a potential higher risk
\n for cardiac events to pass the wellness standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s understandable why they wanted to change these standards,\u201d Miller said. \u201cBut
\n now, are we pushing older firefighters along because of the new lower requirement?
\n They\u2019re able to stay on the job longer, but is that good for them or their families?
\n If cardiac events remain one of the leading causes of firefighter deaths, we need
\n to ask whether the standard is accomplishing what it was designed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ringing the Alarm<\/p>\n

The study was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism<\/a> in September 2025 and was soon featured in the national conversation surrounding
\n NFPA 1580.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mota recalls attending a conference with Miller and the professional collaborator
\n in November and talking to people who sit on committees for health and wellness standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were coming up to us and saying they read the paper and circulated it around
\n their committees,\u201d Mota said. \u201cWe\u2019re at this conference, jumping for joy, like, \u2018Hey,
\n we made it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the excitement over the potential impact the study could have, the goal wasn\u2019t
\n to rebuke or criticize the NFPA, its new standard, or the International Association
\n of Fire Fighters (IAFF), the labor union that represents over 360,000 full-time professional
\n firefighters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mota is cognizant of the recruiting issues faced by the fire service, which the NFPA
\n and IAFF are attempting to manage. The average age of a firefighter is 38, and the
\n NFPA notes that less than 25% of firefighters were under the age of 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t pointing fingers, and we don\u2019t have an easy solution,\u201d he said. \u201cThere
\n is way more to being a firefighter than just the number that comes from this aerobic
\n capacity test. But at the same time, aerobic capacity is directly correlated to a
\n person\u2019s risk of having a sudden cardiac event. We could be taking away a warning
\n sign for older firefighters and shoving them into risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2026, the IAFF released a position paper in support of NFPA 1580 and cited
\n Miller and Mota\u2019s recent study. However, the concerns about the new standard lowering
\n the acceptable aerobic capacity range for older firefighters were never explicitly
\n discussed.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t necessarily surprise Mota.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise of research across the board is that more data are needed, and sometimes
\n that\u2019s difficult for the general public and policy makers to understand,\u201d Mota said.
\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have all the answers yet. Humans are complicated and science is messy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AGraduate students at the Neuromuscular and Occupational Performance Laboratory run
\n tests on a stair machine.<\/p>\n

For Miller, this experience has reinforced the importance of a researcher communicating
\n their work with the public. It\u2019s a lesson surely to pay dividends once she has a lab
\n of her own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re researchers; we\u2019re not totally in their circle,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt can be hard
\n for firefighters to embrace change, and they might not want outsiders coming in and
\n telling them what to do. We just have to continue sharing the data and keep being
\n vocal about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this effort comes back to the personal connection both Mota and Miller have for
\n firefighters, especially the more senior ones like Miller\u2019s grandfather.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is simple: How can we keep these guys and gals alive longer,\u201d Miller said.
\n What can we do to help make sure they\u2019re protected on the job and make sure they not
\n only reach retirement, but enjoy a long and healthy retirement as well?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Learn more about the Department of Kinesiology & Sport Management at Texas Tech.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Older firefighters could unintentionally face greater cardiac risk under a new wellness standard. CREATORS The rhythmic howl of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-330947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}