Topic of Cancer

May 1, 2009 12:00 PM

By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)

The National League of Cities launched a missile with its report, "Assessing State Firefighter Cancer Presumption Laws and Current Firefighter Cancer Research." Currently, 28 states and seven Canadian provinces have presumptive laws that recognize that firefighters are exposed to carcinogens that cannot be contained by PPE and safety procedures. But the NLC's press release on the report claimed to disprove any link between the two.

Fire-service organizations responded quickly, with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters joining together to refute the report compiled by the TriData Division of System Planning Corp.

TriData defended the report and encouraged people to read it instead of the misleading NLC press release. According to the report's authors, Patricia Frazier and Harold Cohen, researchers asked the IAFF, IAFC and the National Volunteer Fire Council in September and October 2008 to contribute any data they had relating to cancer and firefighters. The organizations supplied no data, according to TriData.

According to Jeff Zack, assistant to the IAFF general president, the IAFF and TriData discussed the request, but the IAFF decided TriData was not interested in facts. Zack added that the NLC contacted Yale University for information to support TriData's report, saying they were trying to disprove medical research that linked cancer and firefighters.

The report neither proved nor disproved a link between cancer and firefighting, but it's hard not to liken the NLC's tactics to the tobacco industry's longtime denials about cancer and smoking.

When a firefighter is diagnosed with cancer, it's tough not to think that it's related to the job. Based on research that warns firefighters to clean turnout gear, create safe zones, and prohibit turnout gear in the station and in the home, it's easy to wonder about cancer not only in firefighters but also in their families.

TriData has suggested that the NLC report highlights the need for significant research on cancers and firefighters, including a national registry that would track firefighters from the beginning of their careers. But do we need to wait another 20 or 30 years to confirm firefighters get cancer from their jobs?

Every week I hear of chiefs, officers, firefighters and emergency-vehicle technicians who are battling cancer. Cancer will kill more firefighters in a year than will any tracked cause of line-of-duty deaths, but the fire service can't prove it. There, I said it. Now what are we going to do about it?

The Firefighters Cancer Support Network is recognized by both the IAFF and the IAFC. If you go to the network's Web site, look at the list of cancer groups: testicular, bladder, brain and more. The network does not offer medical advice; instead it offers support and a forum for those fighting cancer — for both firefighters and family members.

The NLC's war of words definitely has pushed the topic of cancer to the forefront — and it may be just the first strike. Could the next one claim that firefighter pension plans are bankrupting city budgets?