A U.S. Air Force heart specialist recommends that there be a mandatory retirement age of 55 for all fire fighters. The basis for his controversial thesis is that routine stress tests are not sophisticated enough to detect hidden heart problems in many fire fighters and other more complicated, dangerous and expensive tests, such as cardiac catheterization and radionuclide imaging, would be too impractical and costly to administer. Further, since three out of four individuals 55 years and older have significant coronary artery disease, all fire fighters should be retired from firefighting duties at age 55.
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