Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-83-360-1495: Chester Fire Department; Chester, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ehrenberg, Richard L. ; Schulte, Paul A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  An epidemiological survey to determine cancer incidence among fire fighters of the Chester Fire Department (SIC-9224), Chester, Pennsylvania, was conducted in August 1983. The survey was requested by the International Association of Fire Fighters to evaluate possible long term health effects among fire fighters who fought a fire at a chemical waste dump site in 1978. The request was prompted by the occurrence of cancer in several fire fighters. Previous evaluation by the Environmental Protection Agency showed that 32 carcinogens or toxins and 5 heavy metals were detectable at the dump site. Questionnaires were sent to 300 persons who may have responded to the fire calls. A total of 108 responses were received. Six cases of cancer were identified. For the 5.5-year period since the fire, 1.8 malignancies of all types would have been expected. The authors conclude that a statistically significant excess incidence of total cancer has occurred among fire fighters who extinguished the waste dump fire. It is unlikely that the excess cancer incidence is related to the fire. They recommend regular screening for cancer according to American Cancer Society guidelines and providing fire departments with information about potentially hazardous substances.
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Firefighters Neoplasms Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety
• Keywords:
  Cancer, Fire Fighters Cancer-rate Chemical Dump Cluster Disease-incidence Fire-fighting Hazards-Unconfirmed HETA-83-360-1495 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 3 Risk-analysis Toxic Wastes

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA833601495
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  14 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Stemhagen, Annette
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00146777
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB85-220291
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 83-360-1495, 1984 Aug ; :1-13
• Editor(s):
  Burgoyne, Patricia
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1984
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  9224 - Fire protection - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f1ea009ab8c5c3188262650aed2c76b1516215be9cbe3248fcf2875fd638b791e8d19ac7b5a558200068817bf8a1bfb8b5c0ef36d618aa6c457dc76caad01018
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172715/cdc_172715_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.52 MB ]