NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 30

BOSTON 2017

Conference & Expo

"Since 2000 I've been in a really busy company,
going to fires and coming out of buildings covered in black, looking like crap," Preston told me
recently. "I thought I'd get cancer-that's the job. I
just didn't think it would be now."

alarming rates from an array of cancers, including
colon, lung, melanoma, mesothelioma, prostate,
rectal, stomach, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and
more, which have all been shown in studies to
target firefighters in higher numbers than the rest
of the population.
While it's hard to pin down exact figures, the disease is taking a serious toll
on the fire service. Sixty-one percent of
firefighter line-of-duty deaths from 2002
to 2016 were cancer-related, according to the International Association of
Firefighters (IAFF), which obtains its figures from
local union reports. That amounts to 1,053 firefighters who have died over that span. Since there
is no definitive registry, that figure is almost surely
only a fraction of the total.
The lack of reliable data on firefighter cancer
deaths illustrates just how overlooked the issue
has been. For decades, cancer in the fire service
has been discussed in murmurs and whispers,
seen by many as the price for doing a dangerous but necessary job. But as the death toll rises
and research reveals more about the extent of
the problem and its causes,
muted concern has given way
to a full-scale awakening and
mobilization.
"We have a full-court press
going on, making sure we do
what we can to protect our members-they aren't always thinking
about this, they're just doing their
jobs, but we need to make sure
there is awareness and training,"
said Pat Morrison, the assistant to
the general president for health,
safety, and medicine at the IAFF.
There is no more time to waste,
Morrison said. "The reality is that
cancer is now the leading cause of
death for our members, and probably the most important issue we
are working on today," he said.
"It's an epidemic. The trend keeps
climbing and climbing."

" I THOUGHT I'D GET CANCER-
THAT'S THE JOB. I JUST DIDN'T
THINK IT WOULD BE NOW. "
BULLISH ON
CANCER
Boston Fire
Commissioner
Joseph Finn, right,
and Rich Paris,
president of the
city's firefighters'
union, are finding
ways to work
together to combat
the department's
cancer problem.

With his diagnosis, Preston joins a growing list
of sick Boston firefighters, poisoned over their
careers by a toxic soup of carcinogenic chemicals
absorbed through their lungs, eyes, nose, and skin.
On average, a Boston firefighter is diagnosed with
cancer every three weeks, according to the Boston
Fire Department's internal figures. Over the last few
decades, the age of diagnosis has steadily dropped
from the 60s to the 50s, and now, increasingly to
the 40s. Preston was 39 when he was diagnosed.
This same reality is playing out in fire departments across the country. Firefighters are dying at

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JESSE BURKE

owhere has the effort to
combat cancer been more
aggressive-and, in some
ways, more unlikely-than
in Boston, where the
leader of the charge has been Fire
Commissioner Joseph Finn.
Finn, a 56-year old mustached
former Marine with steely blue
eyes, is affable and at times

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - May/June 2017