>>1066080EMS guy here, was fire for a while. Also worked in a logging related industry, oddly enough. Basically it's a culture thing. Loggers are typically pretty redneck and wildland guys aren't far off, and in that blue collar redneck world it's easy to start smoking early in life. The stressful job makes it easy to keep doing it.
Wildland firefighters are actually very concerned about their own safety, in terms of physical threats. They have two lists of Fire Orders and Lookout Situations they have to memorize. But in general, fire, ems, and law enforcement tend to have some unhealthy habits like smoking or drinking and a lot of us just don't take care of ourselves physically or mentally.
Some EMS agencies and fire depts, like mine, have shrinking populations of smokers because we unofficially weed them out with physical testing. But even the flight Medics and flight nurses I know -basically the apex of the EMS profession- have a strong tendency toward heavy drinking. Not necessarily alcoholism but definitely more than a lot of people. I'm not as bad as them in terms of quantity but it's not that weird for me to be in to my first beer by 11 AM on a week day depending on how work has been.
This has nothing to do with pipes. Sorry.
