Fire constables in Norway have an increased risk of cancer
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They more often get cancer of the urinary tract, throat and pleura, a new study shows. The Norwegian Cancer Society believes that it must now be easier to get cancer approved as an occupational injury.
In the large survey of 3881 firefighters who worked at 15 Norwegian fire departments between 1913 and 2018, 845 cases of cancer were registered.
– It gives an increased cancer risk of 15 percent compared to the male population in general, says Niki Marjerrison.
She is a researcher at the Norwegian Cancer Registry and lead author of the scientific article that has now been published from the study in Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health.
Tommy Kristoffersen in the organization Firefighters against cancer is not surprised.
– The study supports what we, based on amounts of foreign studies, already feared: Firefighters have a higher cancer risk than others, he comments.
Exposed to many substances
Why firefighters have an increased risk of several cancers has been given different explanations. Good, unambiguous documentation is still a miss.
The Norwegian Cancer Registry and the Norwegian Institute of the Working Environment have decided to do something about this. That is why they, with support from, among others, the Norwegian Cancer Society, have started the project «Cancer risk among firefighters».
Marjerrison’s studies are part of this initiative.
She has put at risk for cancers that have a known connection with substances we know firefighters are exposed to.
Among these are diesel, asbestos and so-called PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Her conclusion is that cancer of the urinary tract, larynx and pleura stand out with an increased risk.
New evaluation of cancer risk
The Gulating Court of Appeal recently ruled that a 79-year-old firefighter was not entitled to occupational injury compensation for the prostate cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010.
The ruling states that “there is a lack of scientific evidence for prostate cancer and the regular effects of the exposure to which firefighters are exposed.”
The Cancer Research Institute of the World Health Organization is currently working on a new evaluation of the cancer risk among firefighters.
– There, our study becomes part of the knowledge base. It will be exciting to see what the expert group lands on now, says Marjerrison.
In the previous assessment, in 2007, the work as a firefighter was classified as a possible carcinogen. But since then, a lot of new research has come.
Reversed burden of proof?
In Canada, the USA and Australia, they now have their own overviews of which lengths in the firefighting profession qualify for occupational disease for different types of cancer. Thus, the burden of proof does not lie with the individual firefighter.
The Norwegian Cancer Society’s general secretary Ingrid Stenstadvold Ross believes that something similar can introduce her.
– Today, it is the firefighters who have to document the forces that are scientific exposures to while they risk their lives for the rest of us. I think we have the whole of Norway with us on the desire that the burden of proof must be reversed, she says.
Tommy Kristoffersen is at least with:
– It is high time that occupational injury legislation is modernized, that the heavy burden of proof that each individual firefighter has is reversed when they apply for occupational injury compensation, he says.
Positive development
In Marjerrison’s study, the risk of getting cancer was greatest among firefighters who started working early in the period she has studied. She believes that the probable reason why the development has been positive is better protective equipment – and that today it is far less sloppy to use it.
– But it is still difficult to conclude absolutely. It is possible that firefighters who have started working in recent times have not yet had time to get cancer, she says.
A somewhat surprising, and gratifying, finding was that the firefighters apparently did not have a greater risk of getting lung cancer than the rest of the population.
– But we do not know enough about the firefighters’ lifestyle to be able to say anything certain about the cause. For example, they may have smoked less than others. Firefighters must be in good physical shape at all. It can camouflage some of the increased cancer risk, so that it is actually greater than what we have found, Marjerrison says.
It is a theory Tommy Kristoffersen believes holds water.
– The fact that physical demands are made throughout his career as a fire constable, probably contributes to a generally better health. It should result in reduced, not increased cancer risk, he says.
Reference:
Marjerrison N et al .: Cancer incidence at sites potentially related to occupational exposure: 58 years of follow-up of firefighters in the Norwegian fire service cohort. Scand J Occupational Health2022. Doi: 10.5271 / sjweh.4009