Winnipeg firefighters battle to prevent cancer
“Yesterday at a meeting with our doctor I finally got my clean bill of health after all the treatments,” Balcaen said. “We are in the clear for the time being.”“I would say every other week we are made aware of somebody, either an active member or a retiree, fighting some sort of cancer,” said Tom Bilous, United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president.The dangerous nature of the job puts many at risk related to repeated exposure to toxins.
“It’s not that we are inhaling the smoke, it’s what we absorb,” Bilous said. “Our gear, as much as it protects us personally, it’s still allowed to breathe and that’s why days after a fire we can still smell like a fire. That’s the body absorbing and the organs filtering it.”Twenty years ago, Manitoba became the first province in Canada to acknowledge the tragic connection between firefighting and cancer, with other provinces and countries following suit.
“We are now up to 19 cancers that are recognized at a higher incidence with firefighters than the general population,” Bilous said. Last year, the World Health Organization classified firefighter occupational exposure as a Group 1 carcinogen.
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