In 2020, five firefighters in Saskatchewan lost their lives to cancer. The disease was directly attributable to the hazards they faced on the job.
According to the Workers Compensation Board (WCB), firefighter cancer is a leading cause of work-related occupational disease deaths in Saskatchewan.
And it doesn’t matter whether the firefighters are full-time paid professionals or volunteers trained to professional National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, the risks are identical.
The WCB says 23 per cent of all work-related occupational disease fatalities in Saskatchewan between 2010 to 2018 were from firefighter cancers.
Warman Fire Rescue (WFR) is taking steps to mitigate those risks for its members, according to Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin.
In a presentation to Warman City Council’s committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, February 22, Austin said the department began implementing measures several years ago, well before a provincial awareness campaign by WorkSafe Saskatchewan on preventing firefighter cancer was launched a month ago.
“WorkSafe Saskatchewan has made firefighter cancer a focal point for all volunteer and career fire departments in Saskatchewan,” Austin told the council meeting. “They brought in consultants to develop a strategy to try and mitigate cancer risks, and the WCB announced they recognized certain cancers if found in firefighters would be assumed to have come from firefighting – even in volunteers.”
Austin said the WCB’s provincial program includes a video series outlining 24 safety steps designed to help educate firefighters about the risks, and how to prevent contamination that could cause cancer. The WCB is hoping all fire departments in the province participate in the program.
Steps firefighters can take to reduce hazards on the job include properly wearing and cleaning all safety equipment, cleaning the inside of vehicles between calls, disposing contaminants quickly and safely, taking a shower as soon as possible after a fire and conducting annual medical and skin exams.
Austin said the Warman fire department has been actively involved in implementing the steps recommended by WorkSafe Saskatchewan.
“The first 18 ‘steps’ they recommend are policy, procedure and physical environment based; the things I can affect as the Fire Chief,” said Austin. “Ten of them have already been adopted in or before 2021, six of them will be in place this quarter, and three of them require more planning and may or may not be accomplishable this year.”
Among the recommendations which are more difficult to implement are those requiring more physical storage space than is currently available in the Warman Fire Hall.
“Cancer does not care if a firefighter is full-time or volunteer, and this is something I have taken seriously my whole career,” said Austin.”We will do what is needed to mitigate the risk as best that can be done for our firefighters as always, and fully support the WCB program.”
WCB Vice-President of Prevention and Employer Services Kevin Mooney said in a news release announcing the cancer awareness program that improving firefighter cancer prevention is one of the top priorities in WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy, launched in 2019.
“As part of the strategy, we worked with industry experts to develop this safe work practices video series,” said Mooney. “Deaths from occupational firefighter cancer are preventable. Our firefighter safe practice video series is one step in our journey together to help support the prevention of cancer among the brave women and men who serve our communities every day.”
Developed in conjunction with Jim Burneka and the Firefighter Cancer Consultants, these 31 videos showcase safe work practices to support fire departments and firefighters in reducing their risk of developing cancer from the hazards they are exposed to at the job site. The videos are based on best practices that were recommended for Saskatchewan fire departments to adopt after an audit of several professional and volunteer fire departments in 2019. In the spring of 2020, WorkSafe Saskatchewan conducted a survey with 141 Saskatchewan firefighters. The survey focused on 26 firefighter cancer prevention items and found multiple gaps in the firefighter cancer preventive measures. The video series was created to fill in the gaps and reinforce preventive measures.
To view the safe work practices video series and for more information on firefighter cancer prevention, please visit worksafesask.ca/firefighter-cancer-prevention.