Firefighters have higher risk of cancer: Study

Study confirms cancer cluster among firefighters in Victoria

Firefighters are exposed to flammable
chemicals, combustion, foams and more.

Firefighters who worked at a Country Fire Authority facility in Victoria’s Ballarat region have a higher incidence of skin, testicular and brain cancers, a comprehensive study has found.

The study, conducted by Monash University, examined cancer and death rates linked to the Fiskville site between 1971 and 1999. It found 69 cancers were among the 606 people who worked and trained there, resulting in 16 deaths.

After releasing the findings, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, told reporters the research confirmed “beyond any reasonable doubt” that there was a statistically significant increase in cancers associated with firefighters who worked at the site.

“This is a very tragic report,” he said. “The evidence is becoming clearer and clearer each day that people have become sick because of this place. People have died because of this place.”

Researchers found a cancer cluster in the high-risk group, considered to be those who worked full-time on the site training firefighters, and who were exposed to flammable chemicals, combustion, foams and recycled firewater.

Of 95 high-risk workers traced, 25 had cancer and six had passed away from their cancer, the study found.

In December, Andrews announced a landmark parliamentary inquiry to examine pollution, contamination and unsafe activities at Fiskville training centre from 1970 to 1990. It is expected to conclude in June this year.

The commission would provide victims and their families with answers and support, and would consider “how, not whether” those affected and their families would be compensated. “This is sad, tragic, and we’re going to put this right,” Andrews said.

But the risk was a historical one, he said. Many of the chemicals staff came into contact with were no longer used during training.

“For those who work here now, there are very low risks associated with this site today because remediation work has been done,” Andrews said. “There’s ongoing oversight and monitoring of those risks and that vigilance is critically important.”

A spokeswoman for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) said the organisation’s chief executive, Mick Bourke, would not be speaking to the media. “He will be communicating with CFA members at some point today through a blog post,” she said.

An official with the United Firefighters Union Victorian branch, Mick Tisbury, said it was “abhorrent” Bourke had refused to comment. The union was calling for his immediate resignation, he said.

“He and the CFA have been denying there was anything wrong with the place for years, they have put our health and safety at risk.

“We’re not expendable. We have families. We are people.”

Tisbury worked at the Fiskville site for 11 years.

“Every day, we have to live with this at the back of our minds,” he said.

In June last year, there was anger among some firefighters and their families when Cancer Council Victoria released a preliminary report that stated firefighters who worked at Fiskville did not have an increased incidence of cancer.

Cancer Council CEO Todd Harper said the report was commissioned only to look at data readily available by cross-referencing the records of 599 Victorian firefighters with data from the Victorian cancer registry.

“At the time we explained the limitations of this study, including imprecision of the relative risk estimates. So, while the earlier report did not find evidence of a cluster, nor did it rule out the existence of one. The Monash University study takes into account those firefighters who had moved interstate - information which was not available earlier.”

He said the council would like to see coordinated action at a national and state level in order to reduce the burden of harm from occupational cancers.

The co-investigator of the latest study, Professor Malcolm Sim, said the research was now more comprehensive, which is why the findings differed.

“The Cancer Council report only looked at firefighters in Victoria and was only supposed to be a preliminary examination, but what we did is trace firefighters who had moved interstate and we did pick up some cancer in those people,” said Sims, who is director of the Monash centre for occupational and environmental health.

“We also placed people into different categories of exposure based on existing guidelines for doing so. This is quite a major piece of work that used Australian Institute of Health data and took over one year to complete.”

The cancer results “stood right out”, Sims said. “Their death rates from other causes of disease, like heart and respiratory disease, were quite low, because these are healthy, fit people.

“That’s why their cancer results stood right out. There was a big gap between cancer and other diseases you don’t usually see in people like this, with healthy lifestyles.”

Researchers would look in more detail at the specific compounds associated with the cancers among the group, he said.

“The problem is the firefighters studied came into contact with a cocktail of exposures and chemicals, and we don’t know which ones may be contributing to their cancers,” Sims said.

Source: The Guardian

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Study to assess breast cancer risk for female firefighters

Firefighters are exposed to flame retardants,
diesel exhaust and other toxic chemicals,
which may affect their health.

When firefighters rush out the firehouse doors, sirens screeching on the way to fight fires, they put their lives on the line in more ways than one.

In responding to roughly 28,000 fire calls a year, members of the San Francisco Fire Department are routinely exposed to flame retardants, diesel exhaust and other toxic chemicals that seep out of raging infernos and work their way into the air.

A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that exposure increases firefighters’ risk of developing cancer. But until now, studies have focused on men.

That’s about to change. Members of the San Francisco Fire Department are working with researchers at UC Berkeley, UCSF and the Silent Spring Institute to find out whether exposure to toxic chemicals increases the risks of breast cancer in female firefighters.

The project, known as the Women Firefighters Biomonitoring Collaborative Study, has been under way for about a year.

“Since breast cancer is a cancer that more commonly affects women, and because of anecdotal evidence that the firefighters have been experiencing (many cases of breast cancer), we wanted to see if there was a link,” said Jessica Trowbridge, a UC Berkeley researcher who is coordinating the study.

Trowbridge and her colleagues are gathering blood and urine samples from about 160 women — 80 San Francisco firefighters and 80 city office workers who will serve as the control group — to use in measuring chemical, hormone and melatonin levels.

They will also measure the lengths of the women’s telomeres, caps on the ends of chromosomes that are associated with aging and cancer, also thought to be related to chemical exposure and working demanding night shifts.

Firefighters in general have higher rates of cancer, especially respiratory, digestive and urinary system varieties, a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study found.

That study included women, but there weren't enough of them to draw robust conclusions about their cancer risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With about 225 female firefighters, San Francisco is better equipped than most cities for a study like this: Women make up about 13 percent of its firefighting population, said Heather Buren, a lieutenant and paramedic with the fire department who is working on the study.

In 2011, less than 5 percent of firefighters nationwide were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Researchers will also test for other chemicals that could contribute to higher rates of cancer in both groups of women, who are probably exposed to personal care and household products as well.

There has been a cultural shift with respect to chemical exposure. For one, firefighters now have better breathing masks, which they’re encouraged to wear for longer periods of time in toxic environments.

There are also rules prohibiting members of the department from storing their turnouts — the suits they wear to fight fires — in firehouse rooms where they eat and sleep.

The San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, which organizes screenings and promotes cancer prevention in the department, is partially responsible for those changes. It was formed in 2006 by Tony Stefani, a retired firefighter who himself fought cancer.

Researchers have nearly finished enrolling participants for the breast cancer study. They hope to have results published in two years. The women who participate in the study will be able to see their individual results when they are complete.

Source: San Francisco Gate. This article has been edited for length.

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Firefighters need better cancer coverage: Canada

Ontario announces increase in firefighter cancer coverage

Multiple cancers can result from
firefighting work.

The government of Ontario is expanding the qualifications for workers’ compensation for career firefighters.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that the province would add six types of cancer to the list of diseases that count as work-related for firefighting professionals.

As of Premier Wynne’s announcement, breast cancer, multiple myeloma and testicular cancer have been newly classified as diseases that can result from firefighting work.

The government also plans to add prostate, lung and skin cancer to the list of illnesses presumed to be work-related by 2017.

“Firefighters face dangerous situations every day, and the risks are both immediate and long-term,” Premier Wynne said in a statement. “While we can never fully remove these dangers, we can, as a government, ensure firefighters have access to the highest quality of care and support.”

The Ontario Premier credited a private member’s bill by Steven Del Duca, the MPP for Vaughan, for spurring on these legislative changes.

The government said in an April 30 press release that the extension of presumptive status for these cancers would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1960. It applies to firefighters who work on a full-time, part-time or volunteer basis and to fire investigators.

The intention is to reverse the burden of proof for firefighters who suffer from these diseases and want to claim coverage under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.

Previously, the government had added eight types of cancer — brain, bladder, kidney, esophageal, ureter and colorectal cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and specific types of leukemia — to the list of presumably work-related diseases in 2007.

The new additions followed seven years of lobbying by the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA) to expand the number of diseases presumed work-related in the sector.

“We’re certainly extremely pleased for firefighters and for their families, that we were able to achieve that recognition,” said OPFFA president Mark McKinnon. “We’ve been lobbying for it for several years.”

McKinnon explained that “a toxic soup of chemicals” in modern fires had expanded the dangers for people in the profession, regardless of the state-of-the-art protective gear that firefighters wear now.

“In the old days, when everything was built of wood and raw fabrics, you didn’t have the chemicals that you do have in today’s TVs and furniture and everything,” McKinnon explained. “And those chemicals affect firefighters, and not necessarily through inhalation, through smoke, but in through our skin.”

As a result, firefighters are more likely to suffer from these types of cancer than the general population, McKinnon added, citing research indicating that firefighters contract testicular cancer at twice the rate that other people do and approximately five years earlier.

He said that he also wanted to see post-traumatic stress disorder recognized as a presumptive condition for firefighters.

Ontario is not the first Canadian province to start acknowledging links between firefighting and several cancers this year.

In February, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Workplace Health, Safety & Compensation Commission recommended that the provincial government update legislation to classify cancer as a workplace hazard for firefighters.

Source: OHS Canada

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Toxic chemicals a concern for firefighters

Toxic substances released by fires can linger on uniforms
and equipment, leading to high exposure levels.

More than 200 empty pairs of firefighter boots recently lined the steps of the Rotunda in San Francisco's City Hall.

Each pair represented a local firefighter who lost his or her life "with their boots off" due to cancer in the last 14 years, said Tony Stefani, president of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation.

"In just the last three months, we've had two active and four retired firefighters die of cancer," said Stefani, a retired San Francisco Fire Dept. captain and cancer survivor, in an interview before the event.

The display is one of at least 15 "Give Toxics the Boot" events around the country this week. From Spokane, Wash., to Augusta, Maine, firefighters are calling for stricter regulations on flame retardants and other toxic chemicals they say are causing cancer and other diseases among their ranks.

"We take every precaution we can to minimize our exposure and risk, yet we're still being exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis," said Emmett McNamee, a 20-year veteran Spokane firefighter. "And these are bio-accumulative. They build up in our systems."

Public health advocates are standing alongside firefighters in the heated battle.

"Our first responders and firefighters are disproportionately exposed and affected by the chemicals that are in our homes," said Lindsay Dahl, deputy director for the non-profit Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, one of the organizations participating in the campaign.

"They serve, just like pregnant women and children, as canaries in the coal mine for the health effects we're seeing from chemicals we're exposed to every day."

To fight a fire means confronting a toxic soup of burning chemicals and their byproducts, including dioxins, furans and formaldehyde.

Many of the most toxic fumes released by today's fires actually come from chemicals added to everything from clothes to couches to computers in an effort to retard flames.

But, as an investigation by the Chicago Tribune uncovered, those additives may offer no meaningful fire protection.

A firefighter's exposure to chemicals can continue long after the blaze is out. Chemicals may linger on the skin, uniform, respirator, helmet and other gear. And if a firefighter wears any of that stuff home, their family may be exposed as well.

Scientists recently tested the blood of 12 California firefighters immediately after they responded to an alarm.

The results, published in June, showed significantly greater concentrations of flame retardants and other modern household chemicals in the firefighters compared with average Americans. Levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, one common flame retardant, were three times higher in the firefighters' blood.

A separate study, published in October by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, evaluated the health of nearly 30,000 career firefighters in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Researchers found higher rates of prostate cancer, kidney cancer, multiple myeloma, and other cancers compared with the general population.

Stefani, the former San Francisco captain, said he has a message for the chemical lobbying industry: "We are sick and damn tired of being your canaries sent into the cave every time we fight a fire. We're sick and tired of seeing the men and women of our profession contracting and dying of this insidious disease.

"We're not only concerned about firefighters," added Stefani. "We're concerned about the population in general with ongoing, daily chemical exposures."

Source: Huffington Post. The article has been edited for length.


Toxic chemicals an occupational risk for firefighters

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Study to examine firefighter exposure to chemicals

Firefighters are exposed to airborne chemicals and particles,
which can linger on their suits and equipment.
Courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A dirty turnout suit after a fire used to be a point of pride for firefighters.

The times have changed, and research now shows firefighters are at a greater risk of developing cancer because of exposure to toxic chemicals while fighting fires.

A recently published study of firefighters in California from Dr. Susan Shaw, an environmental scientist based in Blue Hill, found higher levels of chemicals from commercial flame retardants and other household materials than expected, increasing firefighters’ risk of developing cancer later in life.

Showing the actual health outcomes of the chemical exposure, however, is the goal of a new 15-year study Shaw presented Thursday morning to Ober, other municipal officials and firefighters and fire chiefs from across the state at the annual meeting of the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association at the Augusta Civic Center.

The meeting was part of the annual Maine Municipal Association Convention held Wednesday and Thursday.

Shaw, founder and president of the Blue Hill-based Marine Environmental Research Institute, said the study will follow 50 Maine firefighters over a 15-year period, analyzing their blood after fires to determine the levels of chemicals and cancer indicators.

The California study found two to three times higher levels of chemicals from flame retardants — polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs — than most of the population.

The high levels of toxic chemicals place firefighters at a higher risk, but the longer-term study will try to identify the chemicals that factor in the development of cancer. Shaw said the study is the first of its kind.

“Exposure has not been adequately assessed in firefighters, and the relationship between firefighter and cancer risk is not well understood,” she said, “so the research we’re going to do here in Maine will be a model for future studies.”

Toxic chemicals found in most homes

She said some chemicals have been phased out of production, and several states, including Maine, have banned some types of flame retardants. Yet the chemicals still are commonly found in homes in plastics, foam, furniture, carpets, mattresses, TVs and computers.

Shaw said the flame retardants have been shown to save only a few seconds of ignition time; but when burned, they produce twice as much smoke, 13 times as much toxic carbon monoxide and thousands times more soot.

The Maine study is in the planning phase, Shaw said, but it’s set to begin next year. The firefighters haven’t been chosen yet, and the study probably will select them from larger departments, she said.

Firefighters participating in the study will learn of their blood results but will have the option of whether they want them shared, Shaw said. As in the California study, the firefighters’ names will remain confidential.

Shaw told the audience that in order to reduce the risk of exposure, fire departments should decontaminate gear after each fire; enforce the wearing of air-packs, even after the fire has been put out; not allow firefighters to take dirty gear home; regularly clean the interior of trucks; and have spare turnout suits to use when the others are being cleaned.

Augusta Fire Department Chief Roger Audette, who attended the presentation, said his department took steps in the last two years to reduce the risk for its firefighters by purchasing gas meters and ensuring the air is safe before allowing firefighters to take off their air-packs.

The department also has washing machines on site for the firefighters’ gear. Audette said now it’s common for newly built fire stations to have separate rooms to store suits and equipment between calls, a contrast to the prior practice, and current practice in other fire departments, of air-drying turnout suits in the station.
“It’s a big change,” he said.

Source: Kennebec Journal

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