TONEY, Ala. (WAFF) – Firefighters face danger every single day, but the number one danger they seem to be facing comes as an unfortunate side effect of their daily work.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cancer is the number one killer of firefighters.
President of the Toney Volunteer Fire Department, Heath Jones, says the issue hit close to home for him.
“They have a nine percent higher chance of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher chance of dying from cancer,” he said. “We’ve had some of our firefighters over the years that have cancer, and some that have unfortunately passed away.”
Cancer can pop up anywhere for a firefighter, including the brain, skin, lungs, or arms and legs.
An article on the CDC’s website says the two most common causes of cancer are breathing toxic fumes and absorbing carcinogens through the skin. Cancer cells can show up anywhere on the body of a firefighter such as in the brain, skin, lungs or even the arms and legs.
Jones says that because of this, firefighters must go through numerous procedures to clean themselves off.
“We want to try and keep as many contaminants at the scene as we can,” Jones said. “We don’t want to bring it back in our fire truck because that in turn brings it back to our station.”
Jones said firefighters in Huntsville have banded together to raise awareness for cancer prevention.
“We felt like we were the biggest city in the state of Alabama, and we felt that we had to start looking at the future and the future of our personnel,” Jones said.
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