KITCHENER -- Occupational cancer is the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths for firefighters, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters.
January has been designated as Fire Fighter Cancer Awareness Month.
“I’d be surprised if you find a single fire department out there that hasn’t had people that have contracted some form of cancer within their working group” said Kitchener Fire’s Public Information Officer, Tom O’Hara. “Quite often there is people dealing with that”
Local fire officials said the risk of developing cancer will always exist because of the nature of the work, making it difficult to prevent exposure to toxins from fires.
“Certainly with modern building materials, increased use of plastics and resins, fires are more toxic than they ever have been before. However, our focus is often to ensure that secondary exposure doesn’t occur. And there’s a number of practices and procedures that we have in place to prevent secondary exposure” said Ryan Schubert, Deputy Chief of Waterloo Fire Services.
Schubert said firefighters monitor and measure toxic gases at the scene of an incident. Once dealt with, firefighters will take off their personal protective equipment and bag it, and wipe down areas of their body including their necks, faces, and hands where toxins could potentially enter their body. They lightly decontaminate their equipment before heading back to the station for a full decontamination – including scrubbing down equipment, cleaning inside the truck, washing their gear, and showering.
“Cancer related deaths is a growing concern in this industry, and anything that we can do to mitigate that risk, we’re doing on a regular basis, to continue to improve our hygiene practices and look for new and innovative ways to protect staff against the risk of developing cancer, now and in the future” said Schubert.
“We’re very similar and progressive, trying to avoid our people from catching any of these cancers.,” said O’Hara. “We reinforce our procedures all the time, and especially if crews are going to multiple fires, then our captains and our management are great in supporting, making sure our procedures are followed. These procedures are developed over for a long period of time. So it’s not just saying one fire, this is what you need to do. It’s, you need to do this every fire in order to mitigate multiple exposures and fire"
O’Hara said in his more than 25 years, these modern day procedures and education are making a difference.
“The longevity of the firefighters after they retire is getting better and better. Our gear and everything, the way technology has moved forward developing a lot of these, has been excellent.”
Both O’Hara and Schubert also said provincial legislature plays a helpful role in protecting fire fighters.
“There’s 17 cancers which are recognized within Ontario legislation, which presumes those cancers will develop as a result of the high risk work fire fighters do in the community. There is a compensation through that legislation, normal benefits too within the collective agreement. There’s also language within our collective agreement as well surrounding workplace illness and injury” Schubert said.
Both officials also say their respective fire departments have developed support programs that not only help employees in dealing with work-related injuries, but work upstream to try and prevent them altogether.
