Canadian firefighters must have the support they need to be healthy enough to do their jobs. In order to keep saving the rest of us, firefighters need to be able to save themselves.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Firefighters have a romanticized image as stalwart saviours, the buff picture of health fit for a pin-up calendar. Behind the gloss, though, the profession suffers from the dual crises of mental health issues and cancer that kills more of them than fire does.
This is not to say that firefighters aren’t saviours. They are, coming to the rescue of Canadians daily and facing increasingly complex risks as forest fires threaten cities. But the job takes a serious toll that cannot be ignored.
By a number of metrics, firefighting is a particularly dangerous career. Firefighters have higher rates of fatal cancer than the general population. They also think about suicide and die by their own hand more than other Canadians. Workplace insurance claims reveal soaring mental health-related injuries.
Recruiting is an ongoing challenge, made harder by the risks of the job. Addressing firefighter health is not only good for them – the primary objective – it’s good for everyone else.
Canadians have spent decades building homes that sprawl into the countryside. At the same time, climate change is bringing warmer and drier weather, which will make forest fires larger and more intense. The country needs more firefighting capacity, not less.
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January was firefighter cancer awareness month and a recent study highlighted the importance of that message.
According to a December paper in the journal Injury Epidemiology, Canadian workers’ compensation claim data from 2007 to 2021 showed that cancer accounted for nearly 85 per cent of deaths in the firefighting community, which includes active-duty and retirees. That incidence, nearly 994 deaths per 100,000 firefighters, was more than four times last year’s national average for cancer.
Cancer has long been recognized as a risk for firefighters. All smoke is carcinogenic and can be particularly harmful in urban blazes, where burning materials can involve a range of plastics. Some flame retardant chemicals have also been linked with cancer.
An oncologist named Kenneth Kunz who works with the firefighting community draws a rather poetic parallel between fire and cancer. Both can lurk quietly before growing rapidly. Both have the power to consume, to destroy.
Like fire, many cancers can also be managed, if caught early, with less invasive efforts and less destruction.
Statistics Canada, in partnership with Health Canada and the firefighting industry, is currently working to establish a cancer registry. The goals include facilitating large-scale studies of cancer incidence and assessing the effectiveness of interventions. This seems overdue.
Other efforts can pay off at the local level.
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Funding for firehouse decontamination equipment could help crews clean smoke-related toxins off their gear. Team leaders can encourage cancer screening as part of training, the same as keeping up physical fitness.
When firefighters do get cancer, they face a patchwork of workplace insurer approaches. Only some cancers are accepted as presumptively related to the job, under some circumstances, in some jurisdictions. Better to err on the side of being too accepting when assessing these illnesses. Firefighters step up for Canadians. The country must be there for them.
First responders have traditionally worked in a suck-it-up culture. But there are promising signs that the hazards of firefighting are being taken more seriously. Certainly, many more of them are being diagnosed with mental health concerns, which could reflect a willingness to be open about once-stigmatized conditions.
That study in Injury Epidemiology showed that the annual number of claims for firefighter injuries related to mental illness rose by nearly 1,500 per cent between 2007 and 2021.
The researchers do not speculate on the reasons for the rise but note that firefighting is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, burnout and depression. They also point out that their numbers may not capture the full severity of the situation, since they don’t include rejected claims.
A separate effort led by researchers at the University of Regina is looking this month for firefighters to participate in a study of mental health. The results could inform government policy and, hopefully, many will step forward.
Canadian firefighters must have the support they need to be healthy enough to do their jobs. In order to keep saving the rest of us, firefighters need to be able to save themselves.