CARCINOGEN STUDY
NOT JUST SMOKE Sub-Officer/Paramedic Terry Dent outlines the toxins that put firefighters in danger, and how DFB can work together to reduce the risks
Firefighters in smoky fire conditions
I
n 2016, while researching topics for my dissertation, I came across a quotation from The World Health Organisation International Research on Cancer Working Group, who in 2007 classified firefighting as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Being a firefighter for nearly 29 years at that time, this caught my attention. The article suggested that “further research should be carried out to increase comprehension of what risks are involved”. I carried out a survey to ascertain the level of awareness Dublin firefighters had of how different toxins can enter their bodies. As you would expect, their understanding of the dangers of smoke inhalation was very high, but awareness of other ways toxins can enter their bodies was not as high, nor was the importance of personal
hygiene, cross contamination of fire contaminates and regular PPE laundry. Most of the research data in this article comes from fire services around the world such as the USA, Canada, Australia and the Nordic countries, primarily Denmark, who for many years have been promoting education to make their firefighters more aware of the long-term health risks when exposed to the types of carcinogenic material produced during a fire.
LONG-TERM RISK
It’s this long-term health risk that can reduce peoples’ understanding of the dangers. The latency period may be many years after exposure, and this may be one of the reasons firefighters develop bad habits such as not keeping SCBA on “after the fire is out”, during the damping down phase, or not using high-quality face masks as much as they should. This lack of understanding can
also lead to a lack of awareness around the dangers of bringing highly toxic and carcinogenic material we work in back to where we “live”. In November 2020, Professor Anna Stec from the University of Central Lancashire completed an in-depth research project commissioned by the UK Fire Brigade Union (FBU), involving 10,000 serving firefighters, and unfortunately it discovered 4.1% of respondents had previously been diagnosed with a cancer. This is compared with lower than 1% for the same amount of the general population. Of these, three quarters have served for at least ten years before receiving their diagnosis. More than half are under the age of 50 and a fifth are under 40. Professor Stec said: “In my opinion, there is a direct link between firefighters’ occupation and cancer.” She added that her research showed that firefighters showed above average
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