Male firefighters face a higher risk of melanoma and prostate cancer than the general population, researchers have found.
The study by Monash University in Melbourne looked into the potential health impacts on firefighters, through their exposure to hazardous materials.
Experts studied close to 233,000 current and former firefighters across Australia over three years and compared them to the general population in terms of causes of death and incidence of cancer.
The study found that rates of melanomas in career male firefighters were 45 per cent higher than in the general population, and for prostate cancer it was 23 per cent higher.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Deborah Glass, from Monash University’s Department of Epidemiology, said the study looked at all types of cancers across the firefighter population.
“We were looking at the whole spectrum of cancers and among male career firefighters both part time and full time, we found excessive prostate cancer and melanoma.
“We think there may be an excess in prostate cancer among volunteers too, but we want to look more closely at those who have had a lot of exposure [to fires].”
She said there were too few career female firefighters to draw any conclusions, but volunteer female firefighters appeared to be healthy.
“Among the female volunteers, we didn’t find an excess of cancer among them but again they tend to have turned out to many fewer incidents,” she said.
“We need to look again at those few have turned out to a large number of incidents.”
But she said all firefighters had a higher life expectancy than the general public.
“The main thing in respect of mortality is that firefighters are healthier than the general population and you’d kind of expect that among the main group,” Associate Professor Glass said.
“But when you look at cancer incidents that seems to be higher among the paid firefighters, and it also looks to be higher among the volunteers, but we want to do a little bit more work on the volunteers.”
The study also showed less significant heightened risk in other cancers across career firefighters.
“A couple of other cancers which came up not as strongly as the other two were testicular cancer, male breast cancer, kidney cancer … blood cancers,” Associate Professor Glass said.
“The evidence wasn’t as strong but I think we would hope to look at the cohort again in five years, because on the whole it’s a relatively young cohort.
“Cancer is a disease of old age, so as we follow the cohort further in time, we’ll get more certainty in those findings.”
Looking into early detection tests for firefighters
CEO of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Stuart Ellis said on a positive note, these two most elevated cancers have early detection screening tests, which the industry could look at incorporating into health monitoring programs.
“Compared with other cancers which are very difficult to detect, prostate cancer is one that we hopefully can detect early with good measure in place, so now that we know that we can screen accordingly,” he said.
“We can make sure that during training as well as when they’re attending fires, they’re protected from the sun,
“Again that’s a cancer where there is early detection and being aware of that we can make procedures and protective clothing help minimise the risk.”
He also said a number of other cancers that have been identified as elevated in international studies did not appear in this one.
“It may well be because protective clothing … reduced exposure … and of course the other positive aspect from the study is that the overall health of firefighters is significantly better than the general population,” he said.
“So although their incidence of melanoma and prostate cancers is higher than the general population, their overall health is better and morbidity is lower, so there are some positives as well as some concerns.”