“Firefighter cancer is the leading cause of line of duty deaths in the fire service,” according to Bryan Frieders, President of the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. “This motion will help promote the necessary tools and guidance to develop life saving protocols for cancer prevention and support to firefighters who are diagnosed with cancer.”
The motion was catalyzed by research that shows firefighters are more likely to be diagnosed with certain types of cancer than the general public.
“Ensuring the health and well-being of our County’s firefighters is critical to keeping them and our communities safe,” Barger said. “The heart of this motion is about reducing cancer among firefighters by delivering targeted education and extending support to those navigating a cancer diagnosis. I’m hopeful firefighting agencies across our County will join this month-long campaign to focus on prevention and mitigation.”
“While firefighters are at work saving lives, they’re exposed to hazardous materials that put their own long-term health on the line,” Hahn said. “We can’t forget about the wellbeing of our brave men and women who respond to fires and natural disasters.”
[Information via news release the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.]
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Citizen says
“Firefighter cancer is the leading cause of line of duty deaths in the fire service”
The statement is a mischaracterization of a COD. Cancer is the number one cause of death across all forms of employment, especially for the demographic between 25 and 55, the age while which most firefighters are in active duty.
Though safety from the effects of toxic substances is noble, it is ignoble to spin safety from toxicity into a mythical risk faced by a protected class of employees.
The most ludicrous example of this is my own experience. My neighbor had drained gasoline from a boat into 3 gallon buckets and was storing them on his driveway. I asked the local fire station to intervene in the name of safety from a flammable substance and from a volatile carcinogen perspective, and they would not, stating it was a code violation matter. If it spilled, or caught fire, they said, they said would then take action. That demonstrates the ludicrous nature of their profession, their shun or shrug when public safety and prevention are possible, but tragedy is necessary before they will act.
Sara Genovese says
I checked with a firefighter friend and he said this is the way it works. It seems backwards, wrong.