Fire departments tackle a new foe in fighting blazes: cancer
Reducing the risk of cancer in the next generation of firefighters
A Georgia fire department is attempting to reduce the risk of cancer in the next generation of firefighters.
ATLANTA - Forsyth County Fire Division Chief Jason Shivers says the excitement and unpredictability of fighting fires drew him to the fire service back in college.
At the time, he was working as a volunteer firefighter in North Georgia.
"Everyone knows it’s a dangerous job," Shivers says. "But, what many people don't realize, even young firefighters may not realize, is the dangers that lurk in the things that we're exposed to during firefighting. When anything burns, the byproduct of combustion, that carbon, with combustion, has really bad things in it."