World Cancer Day is being marked around the world today, and aims to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage prevention, detection, and treatment.
A survey of 10,000 firefighters by the University of Central Lancashire found that rates of cancer were four times higher amongst surveyed firefighters than the public.
Researchers believe that this is due to high amount of fire contaminants that firefighters are exposed to throughout their careers.
With the DECON campaign, launched last year, the Fire Brigades Union is taking steps to inform firefighters about how they reduce the risk when it comes to fire contaminants.
But if we’re going to push this work even further we need to build up the Firefighter Cancer and Disease Registry. The registry is based on a health survey for firefighters, and we need all firefighters– to fill it out. It takes around 20 minutes and will help us to help you.
With more information in the registry we will be able to get more life-saving research done.
In a video message recorded for World Cancer Day FBU national officer Riccardo la Torre said:
“We need every single firefighter to fill out that registry, whether you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, whether you’ve been diagnosed with a disease or if you’ve never been diagnosed with anything – we need you to fill out that registry now. There is so much more we need to understand about the link between cancer and other diseases and the occupation of firefighting.
“We cannot protect ourselves from this danger if we don’t properly understand it and we simply cannot do that unless firefighters fill out that registry. Every single firefighter needs to fill it out and they need to fill it out quickly so we can start this life-saving work.”
In related news Fire Brigades Unions officials have been visiting fire stations to promote awareness of and sign-ups to the cancer and disease registry.
In his video message, La Torre also spoke about the success of the DECON campaign, and how it’s reaching every corner of the fire and rescue service:
“We’re so pleased with how this project has taken off since we launched it live from a fire station. We’ve seen engagement in every corner of the fire and rescue service, we’ve seen posters going up, we’re seeing tweets, we’ve seen people with their babies wearing DECON stickers, and the training is being taken. We’re getting requests for more information and more posters all of the time.”
