Excerpts from the iafc.org:
The IAFC thanked Congress for final passage of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act (H.R. 931), groundbreaking legislation which will create an anonymous, voluntary registry for firefighters at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In order to facilitate this research, the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act would create an anonymous, voluntary registry for firefighters at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data would include important information about the firefighter’s medical history; demographic information; number of incident responses and years in service; whether the firefighter was career or volunteer; what other jobs the firefighter might have had; and other risk factors. In addition, the registry would include under-represented types of firefighters, such as women and minorities.
Medical researchers would be able to use the information from this registry and compare it to information in state cancer registries to examine the relationship between firefighting and cancer. The purpose of this national registry will be to help researchers reduce the occurrence of cancer in our nation’s fire and emergency service.
