The Firefighter Cancer Initiative - Part II

It is what it is! This job that we love to do has inherent risks and now, besides everything else, we know, all too well, that one of those risks is cancer. It’s a fact that firefighters have higher occurrences of cancer than the average American. However, we also have excellent medical and research teams around the country who are doing everything they can to learn about our behaviors, exposures, the equipment we use and more, in the herculean effort to help us reduce these risks.

One of those teams is right here in South Florida at the University of Miami – Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Two of the leaders are Dr. Alberto Caban-Martinez and Dr. Natasha Schaefer-Solle. For at least the past four years, the medical and research teams have worked diligently to glean the facts of what we are exposed to and the means to reduce that exposure as much as possible.

Dr. Schaefer-Solle was an integral member of the team that recently developed a gross-decon bucket that was made available to every fire department in Florida and for each apparatus that they have! Inside the bucket are various tools, instructions and videos to instruct members how to perform a gross decon BEFORE they get back on the apparatus and leave the fireground.

Join us, as we look back where we were six months ago when the doctors first joined us and see, not only where we are today, but where we are headed for tomorrow.

For specific information on the links mentioned in this podcast, please visit www.dalmatianproductions.tv, and under the NEWS tab, you will see the FIREFIGHTER CANCER INITIATIVE tab.

Stay Safe & Stay Well!