Podcast: Breaking the Silence Around Cancer and Firefighters
Dr. Erin Kobetz and Dr. Alberto Caban-Martinez speak with Dean Henri Ford about the cancer risks firefighters face.
Firefighters sprint into dangerous situations to protect their communities. But what happens when the very act of helping others puts their own lives at risk?
On the latest episode of “Inside U Miami Medicine,” Alberto Caban-Martinez, D.O., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., leaders of the Sylvester Firefighter Cancer Initiative at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, pull back the curtain on the elevated cancer risk firefighters face because of toxic exposures on the job.
The science is stark and the urgency is clear. When firefighters leave the scene of a fire, their gear and even their skin carries smoke, soot and other residue back into trucks, stations and sometimes even their homes. Research from the Sylvester Firefighter Cancer Initiative has shown that this material is laced with chemicals known to cause cancer.
“Without knowing the exact mechanism, we knew that the soot on their turnout gear and on their person could contribute to risk,” said Dr. Kobetz, vice president for health promotion and chief wellbeing officer, the John K. and Judy H. Schulte Senior Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, associate director for community outreach and engagement at Sylvester and co-director and multiple principal investigator of the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). “That was enough to say, ‘We need to change culture. We need to change behavior.’”
Their collaborative, firefighter-driven research has already sparked real change, translating research into real-world solutions to protect those who protect us.
“Our main outcome is to try to reduce cancer risk,” said Dr. Caban-Martinez, deputy director of the Sylvester Firefighter Cancer Initiative and professor of public health sciences at the Miller School. “We’ll never be able to get risk down to zero, but you better believe we’re going to work really hard to get it down.”
Listen to the full episode to hear how science, advocacy and collaboration are reshaping the future of firefighter health.
Tags: cancer research, Dean Henri Ford, Dr. Alberto Caban-Martinez, Dr. Erin Kobetz, Inside U Miami Medicine, International Firefighter Cancer Symposium, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sylvester Firefighter Cancer Initiative