We all keep saying that we don’t do enough of the health part when it comes to Health and Safety  and here is an example, perhaps - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49811603

Was expecting numerous responses to this...Fire Fighters and first responders generally are a workforce that face risks that are at odds with life saving...people will take risks to do what they perceive as life saving tasks...even if it means putting themselves in harms way...I've done it myself and sufffered 6 months off front line work...but not because the training or facilities were not there..I am not saying this doesn't need pushing up the agenda..this is more about the changing attitudes of recruits coming into the service...the macho image of the fire fighter has gone and now the service needs to change to reflect that... 

I believe that there is evidence that car mechanics and the like, are at increased risk of amongst thing, bladder cancer which might be caused by them using their overalls to wipe their hands and not cleaning the overalls often enough. It seems to be a similar mechanism in fire fighters.

See http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/sr19.pdf for stuff  on the risks from used engine oil

Does anyone have more information on this?

Having read the paper from Lancaster Uni it appears that the reference to cancer rates is from global data and there does not appear to have been any assessment to determine if this applies equally to the UK. Having dug a bit deeper it seems that studies in different countries identify different cancers being a concern for fire fighters. So these results may simply be due to random effects because you will alwys find some variation in every population (correlation does not prove cause).

The reason I am a bit curious is that fire fighters actually spend very little time fighting fires. So if there is any causal link it suggests this would be as a result of very low exposure, which would be a very serious concern.

First of all American fire fighters do not operate to the same systems as the UK fire service in  the UK fire service BA must be donned in fresh air

I cannot speak for the world fire  servcie but I can speak for my time in the fire service in the UK , to say that fire fighters spend little time attending fires is a sweeping generalisation and in my case  and the vast majority of fire and rescue services personnel current and retired completely wrong.

The firefighters who are now suffering for doing there job were not provided with adaquate PPE over several years.

The point is they had to wear the stuff over and over again, and were exposed to the chemials produced at fires over and over again

They had one helmet eassy to clean on the outside virtually impossible to clean on the inside where any chemical could build up.

Two tunics which soaked up  chemicals like a sponge  during a fire and became wet from the inside with sweat and the outside with whatever was burning or smoking. (the smell within a fire engine and on fire fighters after a job is very distinctive)

The tunics were worn some night over and over again as it was not unusual on occasions to go to several fires one after another, you could swap tunics over but both would be covered in allsorts of fire residue and chemcials and remain wet all night . On the appliance  4 to 5 people would breath in those fumes, close of shift you would place all your kit in a drying room and hope it dried before the start of the next shift.(it didnt always) When you came in the next shift there would be dried residue over everything and the only way to remove it would be to brush it off into the air (except the hemets which could be wiped over on the outside but you would have had to take it apart to properly clean the inside and if you didt the fire engine would be off the run and not availible) We did have dry cleaning that came once a week and deleiverd back your 1 of your 2  tunic the following week.

Would you expect or be expected to wear contaminated kit over and over agin they were.

Strong leradership does not keep PPE clean sufficent PPE would have helped them then bit late now though

Oldblueflame's experience is identical to mine after 32 years service in London's Fire Brigade.

The older fire tunics with 2 x rows of silver buttons looked smart but was made from a pourous sponge like surge material soaked up smoke and contaminated water like blotting paper. As we were accountable for spending public money, supplying additional uniform/ PPE to enable us to have clean kit at all times was out of the question and would have been/was laughed at if requested.

OBF has said it all about PPE and health, but one additional concern was in London, we were always being moved around to cover shortfalls of staff in neighbouring (and not so neighbouring!) fire stations. Where possible, we would use our cars and dirty PPE would be thrown in the boot of the car after that 'out duty' shift. Often we would take the kit home, thereby spreading contaminants to places our families would occupy. Senior officers did that every day.

Perhaps we, the firefighting community should take some of the blame. As an organisation, we were entirely fixated on safety on the fire ground - achiveing safe systems of work to enable us to do our sometimes hazardous jobs in unfamilar environments was our main blinkered focus. We also had a smilar safety culture in and around the station plus during training.

Meanwhile the H in H&S was pretty much overlooked. I stress, 'overlooked' and not ignored. Its as if the shadow cast by the huge risks we faced operationally, and the efforts made to reduce risks to crews, almost hid the health risks in uniform we wore every day,  and took home to our families.

Whether this is the reason for the spike in cancers affecting staff engaged or formerly engaged in fire service will be established in due course I am sure as the appetitie for health monitoring has arrived and wont go away now.

I am pretty sure that origin of the cancer spike will be found to be a combination of smoke eating - especially at car fires where BA wasnt procedure until recent years - and the contaminated fire PPE issue. Lets hope the authoroties and unions dont sit on their hands any more and action is taken.