More and more studies show that firefighters are at higher risk of getting cancer than those with other jobs.
On Monday, New York state fire officials came to Albany County in their ongoing efforts to better protect those who serve.
Dozens of firefighters from across Albany County gathered at Westmere Volunteer Fire Department where fire officials with the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) held a demonstration on how to properly decontaminate their gear after battling a fire.
With the help of two firefighters, Tim Graves, Fire Protection Specialist with OFPC showed the decontamination procedures step by step.
“By washing with the soap, the brush, and the rinse, we’re taking off a lot of that contamination. We’re stopping that exposure,” Graves said during his demonstration.
The contamination Graves is talking about is the cancer-causing particles that firefighters get exposed to every time they fight a blaze.
Monday’s demonstration is part of a state-wide effort to better protect fire service members.
State fire officials will be making stops at firehouses across New York in hopes of making these new procedures part of firefighters’ everyday routine.
“The unburden particles that are in the smoke will be soot and particular matter on your gear, it contains materials that we know, like benzene, that are known carcinogens, and that as we put on our gear, if that’s not cleaned off, we’re repeating that exposure and that repeat exposure can increase firefighters’ risk of cancer,” said James cable, State Fire Administrator of OFPC.
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, cancer is a leading cause of death among firefighters, with them currently being diagnosed with cancer at a rate 9-percent higher than the general public.
“Firefighters are at a much greater risk of being diagnosed with cancer but also dying of those cancers. So, by taking these simple steps after a fire, training fire or fire at a building–you know, a real fire– this is going to help reduce that exposure. This is going to help keep us healthier,” said Graves.
Last year, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer re-classified occupational exposure as a firefighter as “carcinogenic to humans,” changing the previous classification of possibly carcinogenic.
Fire officials say that these decontamination steps will protect not only firefighters, but also their families.
“There are studies and we’ve seen videos on it where they’ve done test projects where firefighters have left the scene, left the firehouse, and gone home, and been with their families and actually have transmitted some of the contaminants into their family atmosphere,” said Fire Chief Joseph Gregory of the city of Albany Fire Department.
Chief Gregory tells CBS6’s Briana Supardi that these decontamination procedures are already being practiced at his fire department.
State fire officials initially launched a similar outreach program in 2020, but it was placed on hold due to the pandemic.