As the national first responder community grapples with health and safety on the job, a small fire company in Phoenix, Az., has become the latest station to adopt a new fire truck design, called “Clean Cab,” to help prevent cancer.
“There was a lot of thought and effort put into our clean cab initiative which is part of our cancer preventive program we have in the fire department,” Goodyear Fire Captain Jose Aguirre, who has been battling leukemia since 2015, told local station KTAR in Phoenix. Late Goodyear firefighter Austin Peck passed away at the beginning of September from a rare sinus nasal cancer, KTAR reported, and both cancers are believe to be job-related.
Read MoreFirefighter Cancer Rates
According to the latest data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control, firefighters have a 9% increased rate of cancer diagnoses and a 14% increased rate of cancer-related deaths.
According to a study the NIOSH conducted in 2010, which involved 30,000 firefighters in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco who were employed since 1950, most of those cancers were digestive, oral, respiratory and urinary cancers.
The chance of lung cancer diagnosis or death increased with amount of time spent at fires, and the chance of leukemia death increased with the number of fire runs as well. There was also an increased number of mesothelioma diagnoses, a rare type of cancer in the lungs caused by asbestos exposure.
Aguirre also said that he hopes the new emphasis on cancer prevention will help encourage his firefighters to think of other ways they can lessen their exposure to deadly carcinogens.
The 9/11 Effect
SurvivorNet has spoken with many firefighters who have cancer because of their occupation.
Gary Howard, for instance, a retired lieutenant from FDNY Rescue Company 2 who responded during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, was diagnosed with cancer years later.
“It wasn’t until December, 2016 I started feeling a little strange,” Howard told SurvivorNet. “I was having problems swallowing. I was seeing different doctors out in Queens.”
Howard recalled that getting cancer during the rescue and cleanup had been a worry early on: “We had been warned prior to that going back to as early as December, 2001, when they started analyzing all the dust and the debris about all the carcinogens. And our chief medical officer at the fire department, he said to us, ‘We’re going to pay for this 10, 15 years down the road.’ And he was right.”
Another New York City firefighter we spoke with, Lee Ielpi, was a highly decorated retired member of the Elite Special Operations Company, Rescue 2. He was diagnosed with cancer after responding at Ground Zero, when he also searched for his firefighter son in the rubble after the attacks.
But many said they would put their lives at risk again. Regardless of his cancer, Howard said, he remains proud of his service. “I wouldn’t change a thing if I had to do it all over again. I’d be there,” he said.
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