The U.S. Fire Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are partnering on a study to examine the potential for increased risk of cancer among firefighters due to exposures from smoke, soot, and other contaminants in the line of duty. This multi-year study will include more than 18,000 current and retired career firefighters, a larger sample than previous studies.

The study also will improve on past studies by analyzing not only deaths from cancer, but also the incidence of certain cancers that have higher survival rates than others, such as testicular and prostate cancer, as well as deaths from causes other than cancer. This will improve researchers’ ability to estimate risk for various cancers and to compare risk of cancer with risks for other causes of death.

Firefighters are exposed to smoke, soot, and fumes from fires that contain substances classified by NIOSH as potential occupational carcinogens or by the National Toxicology Program as known human carcinogens or substances reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens. These may include byproducts of combustion such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as contaminants from building products such as asbestos and formaldehyde.

By analyzing deaths and cancer cases among those firefighters, NIOSH will attempt to determine whether:

• More cancers than expected occurred among the cohort and 
• Cancers are associated with exposures to the contaminants to which the firefighters may have been exposed.