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Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month spotlight’s WFPS’s commitment to prevention

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Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month spotlight’s WFPS’s commitment to prevention
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has been taking a proactive approach to reduce cancer risk among its firefighters. Hersh Singh reports. – Jan 21, 2025

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has been taking a proactive approach to reduce cancer risk among its firefighters.

A one-of-a-kind PPE maintenance room, formed in 2022, makes sure that firefighters’ gear is cleaned, repaired, and dried with proper safety measures.

“We used to have the dirty firefighter syndrome,” says WFPS Deputy Chief Scott Wilkinson. “People took pride in their dirty helmets and dirty gear. Our firefighters now know that dirt is carcinogens.”

Studies show that firefighters have a 14 per cent higher chance of cancer-related deaths compared to the general public, due to exposure to smoke, flames and carcinogenic chemicals.

Usually, firefighters are expected to clean their own gear, but in Winnipeg, trained officers take care of them.

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“Precision is very important,” says Lynne Desautels, PPE Repair & Maintenance Tech lead. “Safety is a priority, and we strive to have the highest standards possible”

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The process to get a single set of firefighting gear ready can take hours.

“The cleaning of the gear would take approximately an hour and a half to two hours, and then the drying takes approximately 12 hours for the moisture barrier and the shell to be dry and be ready to go back in the inventory,” says Desautels.

The month of January is a reminder of the importance of these preventative measures.

“We’ve got the Manitoba Fallen Firefighters Memorial, which is located across from the legislative building, where we have the names of 130 firefighters who have died in the line of duty, and the reality is the majority of these are due to occupational cancer,” says Nick Kasper, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.

Kasper says that while they’ve come a long way, they need a better system to test younger members for cancer.

“A 30-year-old firefighter does have the risk factor of a 55-year-old smoker with a family history of cancer, so we do need to test him.”

Kasper says the testing and diagnostics for cancer currently depends on risk factors such as age and family history, and while young firefighters might not fulfill those criteria, they are still under threat due to the nature of the job.

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