From the perspective of a volunteer firefighter I feel that even though safety guidelines and personal protective equipment (PPE) are in place, exposure to carcinogens in the work place is too high especially in the fire service. Firefighters are public emergency workers with specialized training in firefighting and rescue. Firefighter’s primary job is to extinguish fires that are threatening property or civilians. However In recent years there has been an increase to the rescuer side. When a firefighter is on the job they face exposure to dust containing cement, fibreglass, asbestos, lead, and fumes containing hydrocarbons, and PCB’s which are all released from burning buildings. They are also exposed to toxic fumes, from using fuel in equipment and diesel fumes from apparatus. Firefighters are protected by wearing the proper PPE which includes a thermal protective jacket, pants, rubber boots balaclava, and self contained breathing apparatus and by the standards set out by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
In March of this year I attended a cancer lecture mandated by my Volunteer Fire Department by Oncologist Kenneth R. Kunz, M.D., Ph.D. According to Kunz cancer is a natural part of life and if you live long enough you will inevitably develop some form of the disease. Kunz also stated that the cancer rate of firefighters involved with the 9/11 emergency response was noticeably higher than that of other firefighters. This is supported in a study funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (The Lancet). According to this research the events of 9/11 created a disaster area that resulted in occupational exposure to known carcinogens for 12,500 first responders. The study consisted of 9853 Wor...
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I think the chapter that helps to support her main point the most is chapter four titled “Space.” In this chapter, she discussed a great deal about the geographic distribution of cancer as well as the environment of the people who are more likely to get cancer. This includes: job type, living location, and living surroundings. To expand on each, she states that workers with
Tobacco is connected with a number of negative effects in humans and a few other organisms. For example, the long list of negative effects range from birth defects and lessened lung capacity, to sexual impotence. All of the previously mentioned result from extended tobacco exposure in varying mediums and although they are negative effects associated with tobacco, it has also been proven that tobacco to acts as a stimulant to some animals (Nice 135). In studying how tobacco effects the body of any living being and its uses, over time new developments may progress that would allow us to use tobacco only for its positive effects while bypassing its negative ones.
Wing, Steve et al. "A reevaluation of cancer incidence near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant: The collision of evidence and assumptions." Environmental Health Perspectives, v.105, n.1, January 1997, pp.52-57.
On March 25, 1911, 146 garment factory workers their lives in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. In less than an hour, these workers died from asphyxiation, burns, or jumping to their deaths in a futile attempt at escape (McGuire, 2011). The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory the eighth through tenth floors of New York City’s Asch building, and employed approximately 700 workers, 500 of them young women and girls (McGuire, 2011). A fire quickly broke out on the eighth floor shortly before the end of the work day. Loose fabric was strewn about the floor and stuffed under equipment, providing kindling for the fire to quickly become an inferno. As women attempted to exit, they were met with locked doors and forced to find other means of escape, including jumping from the eight floor windows, climbing down elevator cables, and scampering down the fire escape - each route of escape tragically failed, costing many their lives. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is an example of how quickly dangerous and neglectful conditions can quickly take many lives, but it has also served as the impetus for great changes in workplace and fire safety codes and regulations, including the development of Fire Safety Codes, implementation of state-based worker’s compensation laws, and the formation of New York State’s Industrial Code. The impacts of these changes and many others are still felt today, more than 100 years later. There is, however, still work to be done in the area of workplace fire safety, as evidenced in the Kader Toy Factory fire and the Imperial Chicken Processing Plant fire.
Each year about 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result breathing the sm...
For these reasons, minorities often put off the expense of seeing a doctor until they have advanced disease and are past being easily treated. A lack of education, rural or inner city residence, unemployment, and low literacy rate may also contribute to higher cancer mortality rates for some communities. In several studies researchers investigates whether socioeconomic status is the reason for the disparity in prostate cancer incidence, where African Americans and Non- Hispanic Whites are the top two candidates for prostate cancer. Some results found that the highest level of cancer incidence was positively correlated with low socioeconomic status (Cheng, et al.,
The collapse of the World Trade Center caused a toxic dust cloud that covered parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Several of these toxins can cause alterations in the cell that may eventually cause lung cancer including the toxins explained in this paper. Each of these three chemicals are known to cause lung cancer through aerosol exposure. The concentration of the chemicals and the length of the exposure of these chemicals affect the risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer. As stated previously, several of these toxins had exposures over the regulation limit from the collapse of the World Trade Center. There are few studies on the effects of the World Trade Center dust because of how relatively recent this event occurred. Since lung cancer is
Stokes, W.S. “Animals and the 3 R’s on Toxicology Research and Testing.” Human and Experimental Toxicology December 2015: 7. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 February
...per cubic meter of air, they found. While people who smoke may also live in more polluted areas, the large group of the studies showed that even so, pollution can raise even a non-smoker’s risk of cancer.
Every year communities struggle each year around the nation with issues of life safety. In 2012, the nation’s fire departments responded to 31,854,000 responses that resulted in the deaths 0f 2,855 civilians and injuring 16,500 causing an estimated $12,427 million dollars in damage. (United States Fire Administration, 2014) These incidents put at risk 345,950 career and 783,300 volunteer firefighters that resulted in the deaths of 81 individuals (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013) and nearly 70,000 reported injuries. ( Karter & Molis, 2013) These numbers represent incidents that are determined to be in the line of duty but do not take into consideration the long-term health risk issues that may develop. Evidence shows that he hazards associated with Fire and Emergency Services are consistent across the board whether paid or volunteer and jeopardize the lives and health of each individual, placing administrative and physical control measures reduces this risk to firefighter within an organization. While it is impossible to eliminate the hazards firefighters face, it is important to identify these hazards as the first step in reducing the potential for loss of life and wellbeing both physically and mentally.
There are over 7,000 chemicals present in tobacco smoke. Of those over 250 are deemed harmful, and of those 69 are cancer causing. Those cancer causing substances are called carcinogens (Nugel). It is clear that cancer and smoking can be linked. Smoking causes cancer of the lung esophagus, larynx, mouth,...
doubled the chances of getting cancer. This test was conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), it also showed that electrical workers are at three times the risk of contracting cancer.
Every year, there are over 400,000 smoking-related deaths in the United States. A large percentage of these are due to lung cancer, whose leading cause is smoking. However, not all deaths are smokers themselves. Anyone in the vicinity can fall victim to second hand smoke. These people, through no action of their own, can have their lives threatened.
Nicotine is the chemical in tobacco that most impacts the brain and provides near instantaneous feelings of pleasure associated with smoking. People who smoke usually have ruff skin or other things that are wrong with them. Tar will also stain smoker’s fingers, their teeth, and collects in their lungs (Eshrick 32). Lung cancer is the most common cancers that most people have. Studies have proven that one out of every four people die from lung cancer, and ninety percent of cancer is caused by tobacco use (Eshrick 62). Bladder cancer may occur when smokers inhale some of the carcinogens in tobacco smoke are absorbed from the lungs and get into the blood, then filtered by the kidneys and concentrated into the urine. If the victim smokes more than twenty cigarettes a day it can double the risk of the most common type of kidney cancer (Eshrick 55). The last cancer is cervical cancer, the chemicals damage the cervix. There are cells in the lining of the cervix called Langerhans cells that specifically help fight against diseases. These cells do not work well in smokers (Eshrick
Every year new medical reports are issued regarding the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world die every year from diseases caused by smoking. Approximately one in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. The most common of the diseases caused by smoking is cancer, of course. Not only is it a cause of lung cancer, but cancer of the larynx, and the esophagus, and it contributes to the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, and kidney. Lung cancer comes from the tar in the cigarettes. The tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney. It does not make a difference if a smoker changes to low-tar cigarettes because smokers will take a deeper puff to get the same affect as a regular cigarette. This causes them to draw the tar deeper into their lungs causing even more damage. The Surgeon General requires that every package of cigarettes has one of the following statements: SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy. SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide. Despite these warnings most of the population is not aware of the other illnesses that can develop...