NFPA Journal - November/December 2019 - 24

F I R E F I G H T E R H E A LT H

TRACKING THE ENEMY

BIG-CITY FIRE CHIEFS URGE FIRE SERVICE PARTICIPATION IN
THE UPCOMING CDC DATABASE ON FIREFIGHTER CANCER
By Angelo Verzoni

aced with mounting evidence of the alarmingly
strong link between
firefighting and cancer,
the United States government last year asked the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
to establish the National Firefighter
Registry (NFR), a database that will be
used to track and better understand
cancer among firefighters across the
country. Although participation in the
registry is voluntary, in September,
fire chiefs from major cities in the US,
as well as the United Kingdom and
Canada, endorsed a position paper
encouraging all American firefighters
to take part when registration for the
NFR opens in late 2020.

F

The group of chiefs, known as the
Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association
(Metro Chiefs), endorsed the paper-
along with five other documents-at
the conclusion of the annual Urban
Fire Forum (UFF) hosted at NFPA
headquarters in Massachusetts.
"Participation in the NFR is voluntary.
However, it is the official position of
the Urban Fire Forum that all firefighters-structural and wildland, career and
volunteer, active and retired, and those
with and without cancer-should take
part," the paper says. "Broad and diverse
participation is absolutely critical to
the success of the NFR. Only with widespread involvement will researchers be
able to generalize from the collected
data to make accurate conclusions. By

24 | NFPA JOURNAL * N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

supporting the NFR, the
Metropolitan Fire Chiefs
hope to help learn more
about the health risks
firefighters face with
respect to cancer. Information gleaned from this
project will be invaluable
to fire departments, fire
service organizations,
standard-setting organizations, and policymakers
throughout the country
as they strive to protect
the health and safety of
firefighters."
The Metro Chiefs
endorsed a related position paper this year,
which urged the support
for more aggressive
and efficient means of
collecting data on all firefighter health and injury
information, not just the
incidence of cancer.
Other topics of position
papers endorsed by the
Metro Chiefs at the 2019 UFF included
hot work safety training; suicide prevention among firefighters; the need
for information officers at fire departments; and the need for departments
to increase access to firefighter training
related to large-scale incidents, such as
natural disasters.
For Russ Sanders, executive secretary of the Metro Chiefs and a regional
director at NFPA, the papers related to
firefighter health and safety are particularly significant and timely.
"Today's firefighters respond to a
broad range of emergencies and catastrophic events that have become
commonplace in the United States and
throughout the world," Sanders said.
"Beyond the immediate hazards encountered at the incident scenes, these
exposures can cause physical and mental
health concerns that can surface long
after the actual incidents. To adequately
manage these situations, fire chiefs must
understand, track, and document risk
exposures and be prepared to identify
and address issues in the early stages."
Read all of the 2019 UFF position
papers at nfpa.org/uff.

GETT Y IMAGES

Dispatches
http://www.nfpa.org/uff
NFPA Journal - November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2019
