This multi-year, USFA-supported NIOSH study will include over 18,000 current and retired career firefighters. The project will improve upon previously published firefighter studies by analyzing health data for a significantly increased number of individuals, which will provide greater statistical reliability.
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.
“There is a need to have a comprehensive study of the incidence of cancer in the fire service involving objective medical and epidemiological oversight. We have lost too many firefighters from this disease,” said USFA Administrator Kelvin J. Cochran. “USFA is pleased to work with NIOSH in this initiative.”
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.
This study is intended to enhance current firefighter safety knowledge and inform ongoing efforts to further characterize the cancer risk associated with these exposures due to firefighting operations. During the study, researchers will establish the population of over 18,000 career firefighters from health records of both suburban and large city fire departments.
By analyzing deaths and cancer cases among those firefighters, NIOSH will attempt to determine 1) whether more cancers than expected occurred among the cohort and 2) whether cancers are associated with exposures to the contaminants to which the firefighters may have been exposed.
Additional information about NIOSH’s program to investigate firefighter deaths in the line of duty, and to make recommendations for preventing such deaths, can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire.