But it’s not just women seeing a spike in cancer — male firefighters have also been diagnosed with the disease.
San Francisco Fire Inspector Chris Gauer, who has been involved in fighting 186 fires, was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer about five years ago.
Because radiation didn’t work to combat the disease, he had to undergo a full laryngectomy, meaning his voice box was removed.
“I never smoked — never was around, you know, tobacco smoke or anything like that. And my doctors also confirmed that it was definitely fire related,” Gauer said.
The cause for the increase in cancers, including the breast cancer and other types that have spiked in firefighters, is believed to stem from the kinds of items burning inside homes.
Because of the increase in synthetic materials in homes, fire department researchers say firefighters are exposed to even more dangerous fumes.
“And we have a lot of flame retardants in furniture that are toxic and are toxic to you and your family as well as to firefighters,” Nicholson said. “So you’ll have these flame retardants in your bloodstream just as we do. We just have it in higher rates.”
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Firefighters are also more susceptible to chemicals that get on their skin. To combat this, firefighters are taking on more rigorous decontamination procedures.
A study conducted by the Women Firefighter’s Biomonitoring Collaborative is hoping to produce more concrete answers for scientists and firefighters.
Until then, the threat of cancer is a fear consistently looming over the department.
“I always think of it as there’s a cancer sniper out there in the fire service. And it’s not when. It’s not if. It’s who’s gonna be next? What woman in the San Francisco Fire Department is gonna get breast cancer next?” Nicholson said.