• The strenuous duties of emergency responders (firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical services [EMS] personnel) can interact with their personal risk profiles, including elevated blood pressure, which can lead to cardiovascular events. 

• Approximately every 3 out of 4 emergency responders have prehypertension or hypertension (high blood pressure).

• Currently, elevated blood pressure is inadequately controlled among these professions and strongly linked to on-duty cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.

• Typically, the work of emergency responders involves unpredictable and stressful bursts of high intensity, and potentially life-threatening activities which produce adrenaline rushes and higher demands on the cardiovascular system.

• Alarm response, which results in elevated heart rates and blood pressure through a fight-or-flight response, carries risks of on-duty Coronary Heart Disease events on the order of 3–15 times higher than nonemergency duty.                                             

                                                                                                                                           CLINICAL DATA SOURCE