Firefighters face higher cancer risk, study finds
Firefighters are more likely to die from cancer, heart attacks and strokes than the general population, research has found.
And in instances where cancer with an unknown origin has spread, the rate was 6.4 times higher than the general population. Iain Barbour fell ill in the summer of 2020 and by that October he had lost around four stone and was surviving on a liquid diet of soup and water. He added: "It was always a goal when I was off sick and the target was always to get my fitness back to get back in the job and it most certainly kept me going through some pretty dark days."
He added: "We did not have the the facts and figures and the truly shocking percentages but there is very few firefighters who won't know someone, a work colleague, who either has a diagnosis of cancer or sadly has already died of cancer.Colin Brown of he FBU Scotland said he was alarmed by the statistics in the study
Mr Brown added: "We can't remove the risk because fires contain these toxic chemicals but we have to take measures in order to protect this group of workers, firefighters, in their workplace."
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