What is cancer a problem? Firefighter cancer is a looming personal catastrophe for each and every firefighter. Cancer is the most dangerous and unrecognized threat to the health and safety of our nation’s firefighters. Multiple studies, including the soon-to-be-released NIOSH cancer study, have repeatedly demonstrated credible evidence and biologic creditability for statistically higher rates of multiple types of cancers in firefighters compared to the general American population including:

• Testicular cancer (2.02 times greater risk)
• Multiple myeloma (1.53 times greater risk)
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (1.51 times greater risk)
• Skin cancer (1.39 times greater risk)
• Prostate cancer (1.28 times greater risk)
• Malignant melanoma (1.31 times great risk)
• Brain cancer (1.31 times greater risk)
• Colon cancer (1.21 times great risk)
• Leukemia (1.14 times greater risk)
• Breast cancer in women (preliminary study results from the San Francisco Fire Department)