If you are a member of the fire service, you should be aware of the toll cancer has taken on members from every area of “the job,” career, volunteer, part-pay and WUI. It wasn’t so long ago, that many of us attributed cancer losses to our brothers and sisters who worked the pile after 9|11. Sadly, that was not the case. Though the number of working fire years per year (for most non-urban departments) were down, WHAT was burning had evolved. No longer was furniture and its covering made from real wood and fabric. They had been replaced with parts and covering made from fossil-based chemicals, e.g., natural gas and petroleum, as are so many products in in our homes today. And when these burn, they release massive amounts of carcinogenic compounds into the structure. Thankfully, the Firefighter Cancer Initiative was officially launched in 2015.

My guest today is FF/PM Jim Burneka. Jim has served with the Dayton OH Fire Dept. for twenty years and has been involved with the fight against occupational cancer for fifteen years. He has presented  on cancer prevention across the U.S. and Canada. And as you will hear on this podcast, his knowledge about firefighter cancer is not just from study and his presentations. Over the last year, it became personal.

PLEASE....Listen to this episode! It just might save YOUR life!

As always, catch the webcast on our YouTube® channel, “5-Alarm task Force Corp,” or listen on your favorite podcast platform or our website, https://www/5-AlarmTaskForceCorp.org

 

Photo courtesy: Healthline.com