Few months back news came in stating, firefighters are more prone to prostate cancer and this time researchers have come out giving another shock to these firefighters, transpiring the fact that firefighting increases firefighters’ vulnerability to coronary heart disease (CHD) by up to 100 times than non-emergency duties. However, this is not for the first time that firefighting has been linked to heart diseases because several studies conducted earlier have also shown that how percentage of patients with heart diseases is growing alarmingly among firefighters. Like-
• In firefighters 50% of deaths results from heart attacks
• Heart Attacks Claim More Firefighters Than Any Other Cause
• Health Inferno: Firefighters’ Greatest Risk May Not Be Fires, But Killer Heart Attacks
However, this study is somewhat more convincing than the studies conducted earlier on this issue because results or conclusions looming out of this study are utterly based on long analysis of statistical studies. In the latest study, experts reviewed the data of the past 11 years, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of all deaths on duty on firefighters between 1994 and 2004. Interestingly this data didn’t include those firefighters who linked to the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks. In the words of Stefanos Kales of Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA states:-
Instead, this is a statistical analysis with several different models that allowed us to estimate duty-specific risks. We think we’ve provided the strongest evidence to date that specific firefighting activities can indeed trigger heart events in susceptible firefighters.
According to an estimate, heart disease accounts for 45 per cent of deaths among the firefighters from the U.S. alone, which indirectly suggests that firefighters are at higher risk of heart diseases. Unfortunately, heart disease is not the only threat for these firefighters but cancer is also getting over them, which confirms the fact that from health point of view firefighters are not safe. Have a look at the increased vulnerability of firefighters to cancer:-
• Firefighter cancer risk ‘higher’
• Firefighters Face Increased Risk For Certain Cancers
• Raised cancer risk in firefighters
On the basis of this study and by ruminating over the previous studies it could he asserted that a great threat is constantly hovering over the health of these firefighters. Therefore, it becomes quite important to bring out more effective as well as preventive methods so that these valiant firefighters may protect their health in the same way as protect others’.
Via: Xinhua Net
