Cancer Prevention in the Fire Service: Exposure Assessment, Toxic Effects and Risk Management (2015-2018)

Funding: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) EMW-2014-FP-00200

Principal Investigator: Jeff Burgess, MD, MS, MPH

Goal:

The project goal was to collaborate with the Tucson Fire Department to measure and identify effective methods of reducing firefighter exposure to carcinogens and associated toxic effects.

Specific Aims

1 Evaluate exposure to carcinogens throughout the work shift;

2 Measure biomarkers of carcinogenic effect in relation to workplace exposure; and

3 Within a risk management framework, test the effectiveness of interventions to reduce fire service carcinogen exposure and effects.

Impact

This research established the research protocols used in the development of the FFCCS, including community-engaged research, biological sample collection, processing and storage, and the selection of epigenetic endpoints for evaluation of exposure effects. Over 500 Tucson Fire Department study participants enrolled in the study, and additional study outcomes included establishing that all firefighters on the fireground had increases in their urinary PAH metabolites after a fire and that interventions including having engineers wear SCBA (engineers on air) and wash down on scene and improved personal decontamination effectively reduced urinary PAH metabolite concentrations. Furthermore, this study established that changes in both peripheral blood DNA methylation and microRNA expression are mechanisms by which firefighting can increase cancer risk.

Publications

MicroRNA Changes in Firefighters (Zhou et al., 2018)

DNA methylation among firefighters (Zhou et al., 2019)

Evaluation of interventions to reduce firefighter exposures (Burgess et al., 2020)

Assessment of the toxicity of firefighter exposures using the PAH CALUX bioassay (Beitel et al., 2020)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, epigenetic age and DNA methylation: a cross-sectional study of firefighters (Goodrich et al., 2021)

Repeat measures of DNA methylation in an inception cohort of firefighters (Goodrich et al., 2022)

Evaluating changes in firefighter urinary metabolomes after structural fires: an untargeted, high resolution approach (Furlong et al., 2023)

Associations Between Epigenetic Age Acceleration and microRNA Expression Among U.S. Firefighters (Jung et al., 2023)

Serum per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance concentrations in four municipal US fire departments (Burgess et al., 2023)

Comparison of Serum Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Concentrations in Incumbent and Recruit Firefighters and Longitudinal Assessment in Recruits (Nematollah et al., 2023)