It's well documented that firefighters have significantly higher rates of cancer than the general population, and these elevated rates have been associated with exposures to toxic chemicals on the job. However, most research on cancer in firefighters has been done in men and less is known about the risks in women. Now a new study by Silent Spring Institute has identified multiple chemical exposures that firefighters face on the job that could increase their risk of developing breast cancer .
"With more and more women entering the profession, it's important to understand the impact of workplace exposures on their health so that we can inform policies to reduce exposures and create a safer work environment," says study-co-author Ruthann Rudel, director of research at Silent Spring Institute. The study appears in the journal Toxics as part of a special issue on firefighters' occupational exposures and health risks. Rudel and her colleagues searched through databases from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the U.
S. National Toxicology Program to identify chemicals that cause mammary tumors in animals, because these chemicals are likely to increase breast cancer risk. In addition, the team searched for chemicals that have been associated with breast cancer in human studies .
The researchers then identified more than a hundred studies describing the different chemicals firefighters encounter on the job and screened these studies to see which of these workpla.
