National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer (2023-Present)
Funding: Congressional funding as authorized through the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act
Principal Investigator(s): NIOSH (POCs: Dr. Kenny Fent and Alex Mayer)
Website:
Purpose
Studies show that firefighters may have a greater risk of developing cancer due to their exposure to smoke and hazardous chemicals on the fireground. Many of these studies did not include volunteer firefighters or enough female or non-white firefighters to draw conclusions about their cancer risk. The NFR was created to address these knowledge gaps. The NFR is open to all U.S. firefighters, not just those with a previous diagnosis of cancer. Having many types of firefighters join the NFR is crucial to examining relationships between firefighter activities and cancer. This will allow us to better understand the link between firefighting and cancer.
Anticipated Impact
The NFR will allow health and safety researchers to improve our understanding of cancer risk among firefighters, particularly among women, volunteer, and racial and ethnic minority groups of firefighters, as well as understudied groups like wildland firefighters and fire investigators. The NFR will pull in cancer diagnosis information by matching NFR participant information to population-based cancer registries, including all 50 state cancer registries. This enables the NFR to track cancer diagnoses over a long period of time without the need for participants to report cancer. The long-term goal of the NFR is to learn more about firefighting and cancer so we can reduce cancer in the fire service in the years to come.
Collaboration within the FFCCS
The FFCCS is offering their enrolled firefighters (and future enrollees) the opportunity to consent to participate in both FFCCS and the NFR. Firefighters that participate in both the FFCCS and NFR are offered the option to allow researchers to link select FFCCS information with data from the NFR to better understand cancer and its risk factors in the fire service. This will allow us to learn even more about the relationship between firefighting and cancer.
How to Sign Up for the NFR
Firefighters can join the NFR through the secure web portal. Privacy and data security are top priorities for the NFR, data are protected by numerous safeguards including an Assurance of Confidentiality. Participation is voluntary. Participants can get started in as little as 5 minutes by creating their account, signing the consent form, and completing the user profile. Completing the enrollment questionnaire can take an additional 20-30 minutes, but participants can log out and return at any time. The NFR is a long-term project that will include voluntary, but important, follow-up questionnaires.