Wildland Firefighters Face Heightened Risks.

• Position: CANCER

Wildland firefighters constitute a large and diverse group of essential workers that increasingly has been called upon to battle larger wildfires and forest fires across a longer fire season. Cancer is a leading cause of fire service morbidity and mortality in municipal firefighters, but an adequately sized epidemiologic study to measure cancer rates in wildland firefighters directly has not been conducted.

"With wildfires increasing and more firefighters battling larger forest fires due to climate change, we need to understand the exposure science and health effects so we can reduce risk as much as possible and keep our firefighters healthy," says Jeff Burgess, professor of public health and member of the BI05 Institute and the University of Arizona Cancer Center.

The study "Wildland Fire Fighters: Exposure Assessment, Carcinogenic Effects and Risk Management" will assess acute exposure to carcinogens among...