A bill to develop a registry of cancer incidences among firefighters has advanced through the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill, HR 931, will become a law if passed by the House of Representatives.
Firefighter Cancer Registry Act of 2017 would require the secretary of Health and Human Services to collect, consolidate, store and make publicly available epidemiological information related to cancer incidence and trends among firefighters. The registry is intended to enable researchers to study the relationship between firefighters’ exposure to fumes and toxins and the risk of developing cancer.
“The legislation addresses an enormous gap in research conducted on the heath impacts of a career of firefighting,” says Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), one of the bill’s authors. “Firefighters may experience detrimental health effects due to smoke inhalation and other harmful substances, and this legislation takes a first step toward developing new protocols and safeguards for these men and women.”
The bill would require CDC to develop and maintain a voluntary registry of firefighters to collect history and occupational information that can be linked to existing data in state cancer registries. The registry must be used to improve monitoring of cancer among firefighters and to collect and publish epidemiological information regarding cancer among firefighters. According to the Congressional Research Service, under The Firefighter Cancer Registry Act of 2017, CDC should seek to include specified information in the registry, including the number and type of fire incidents attended by an individual.
The Firefighter Cancer Registry Act of 2017 would allow CDC to incorporate questions into existing public health surveys, questionnaires and other databases to collect information for the database.
The bill says CDC must:
- develop a strategy to maximize participation in the registry;
- develop guidance for states and firefighting agencies regarding the registry;
- encourage inclusion in the registry of data on minority, female and volunteer firefighters;
- seek feedback on the registry from nonfederal experts.
Read the rest of this article on the American Society of Safety Engineers’ website.
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