HERE’S HOW THE DISPATCH SURVEYED FIREFIGHTERS
he followed the older guys’ lead and covered his nose with the hood that covered his head and part of his face.
By the time the trucks cleared the scene on the Far East Side of Columbus, black mucus oozed from Rine’s nostrils. The drip and headache lasted for days.
For nearly six years, he was told by other firefighters that it was OK to wear nothing but a T-shirt when tearing into the guts of a smoldering house. It didn’t matter whether he wore an oxygen mask. Like the other guys, Rine often put off showering, opting instead for a drink after his shift ended. He carried home his scorched helmet and blackened coat, trophies of a hero firefighter.
Then in September 2012, Rine learned that he had terminal stage 4 melanoma — skin cancer that had spread. He was given about a 5 percent chance of surviving five years.
Doctors also told Rine that his cancer likely was caused by his job, that the cancerous spots covering his body and a tumor in his lower back were a result of exposure to the carcinogens, flame retardants and toxic chemicals contained in uncounted burning objects inside homes, other buildings and vehicles.
Now, at 36, Rine is using the strength he has left to try and save thousands of other firefighters in the United States from his fate. He has traveled the state and country preaching to his firefighting comrades that they must protect themselves and one another from the cancer threat.
The threat affects people far beyond the firefighting community. Unsafe practices in firefighting are stealing our community heroes from us and creating a liability for taxpayers.
Rine pursues this calling to give them the warning he never got.
The fact that he’s dying won’t stop him.
The real threat
Firefighters are at least 14 percent more likely to develop cancer than the general public. They’re twice as likely to get skin and testicular cancer, and mesothelioma a cancer that grows in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart that is caused by asbestos, according to a 2015 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Most of the nation’s estimated 1.1 million firefighters didn’t know that when they entered the academy. Many still don’t.
“Occupational cancer is something we need to look at and we need a paradigm shift,” said Frank Szabo, a battalion chief with the city of Cleveland Division of Fire. “Cancer is a silent killer, and it is giving us a knockout punch.”
No one tracks exactly how many firefighters have been diagnosed with or have died from occupational cancer. But a Dispatch examination found that it’s a grave threat affecting fire stations in Columbus and around the nation.
In Columbus, at least 100 of about 1,500 firefighters currently are battling cancer. There likely are more: Some firefighters are never screened, hide their diagnosis or don’t seek treatment. And in Orange Township in Delaware County, an internal survey found that five of the township’s 41 firefighters have cancer.
Concord, North Carolina, fire officials were stunned when three out of a class of 10 rookie firefighters were diagnosed with cancer within two years on the job.
More than 60 percent of the names added to the International Association of Fire Fighters national memorial in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are firefighters who died of occupational cancer in the past 15 years. That’s a total of 1,155 cancer deaths just within the union’s membership. And that number is low because the deaths are selfreported from the local unions in 36 states that have presumptive cancer laws for firefighters.
The NIOSH study released in 2015 determined that the 30,000 firefighters in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco were more likely to get cancer than the general public. Those firefighters had higher rates of skin, colon and prostate cancer and were twice as likely to be diagnosed with testicular cancer and mesothelioma.
To better understand the depth of the issue and whether firefighters take steps to prevent cancer, The Dispatch conducted two statewide surveys among nearly 1,300 active Ohio firefighters and 360 fire chiefs and found that:
• Roughly one in six has been diagnosed with cancer.
• About 85 percent know at least one firefighter who has
The Dispatch created and conducted two surveys: one for Ohio fire chiefs and the other for career firefighters. The electronic surveys included 23 questions for firefighters and 15 questions for chiefs that asked about awareness of occupational cancer and safety precautions they take to protect themselves during and after fires.
The Dispatch obtained the email addresses for all 1,214 fire chiefs in Ohio from the state fire marshal’s office and invited them to participate. Nearly 30 percent — 360 – fully completed the survey. Another 90 for unexplained reasons answered only the first question and were eliminated in analysis of the answers.
No state agency keeps email addresses for Ohio’s 18,800 professional and volunteer firefighters. The Dispatch contacted the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, which emailed a link to the survey to its 5,700 members. More than a fifth — 1,288 — completed the survey.
Volunteer firefighters, who represent two-thirds of firefighters in Ohio, were not included in that survey because there is no central email distribution site to reach them. However, chiefs of volunteer fire departments were included in the chiefs’ survey and represented nearly 45 percent of all the respondents.
The Dispatch agreed to share the raw data of the firefighters’ survey with the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters after the newspaper’s stories have been published. been diagnosed with cancer; nearly 60 percent know at least one firefighter who has died from it.
• About half of firefighters believe cancer is their greatest occupational risk. Ten years ago, only about 5 percent believed that.
• Though 95 percent of chiefs surveyed said they know cancer is the greatest occupational risk to firefighters, only about half of their departments provide cancer-prevention training or implemented procedures to reduce the threat. Almost 30 percent of the firehouses don’t even have showers.