Asbestos Exposure on Firefighters
- Albany Felt Company
- Alcan
- Alco - American Locomotive
- Alcoa
- Bausch & Lomb
- Beech Nut
- Bethlehem Steel
- Blue Circle Cement
- Borg-Warner
- Bristol-Myers
- Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Carborundum Company
- Carrier Corporation
- Chevrolet
- Ciba Geigy-Hercules
- Columbian Rope Company
- Domino Sugar
- Eastman Kodak
- Fairchild Republic
- Garlock
- General Electric - Auburn
- General Electric - Fort Edward
- General Electric - Hornell
- General Electric - Hudson Falls
- General Electric - Waterford
- General Foods
- General Motors
- GM - Tonawanda Engine
- Honeywell
- IBM - Hopewell Junction
- IBM - Kingston
- IBM - Owego
- IBM - Poughkeepsie
- IBM - Yorktown
- International Paper
- International Wire
- Kraft Foods
- Lockheed Martin
- Nabisco
- Nestle
- Northrop Grumman
- Occidental Chemical
- Revere Copper
- Revere Smelting
- Reynolds Metal Company
- Seneca Army Depot
- Stauffer Chemical
- Union Fork & Hoe
- Wabash Alloys
- Wyeth-Ayerst
- Xerox
Details
As a New York firefighter, you are ready at a moment’s notice to save lives even if it involves risking your own. But you shouldn’t have your health harmed by a preventable hazard – like deadly asbestos fibers.
Federal work safety researchers are currently conducting major research on whether firefighters have a higher risk of cancer, as has long been suspected. One of the major causes of cancer that firefighters face is asbestos, which causes a respiratory cancer known as mesothelioma. Older houses, commercial buildings and boilers all contain asbestos insulation and building materials. The damage to a house or structure during a fire can release asbestos fibers into air, allowing the toxic fibers to be inhaled.
Information About Mesothelioma Risk for Firefighters
- Ways that Firefighters are Exposed to Asbestos on the Job – Firefighters are at risk of exposure to asbestos from a variety of sources on the job. But firefighters most likely won’t recognize the symptoms of asbestos disease for decades.
- 9/11 Asbestos Exposure and the FDNY – Asbestos was used to insulate the lower half of the first World Trade Center tower. A pattern has emerged of negative health effects among firefighters who responded to 9/11. That pattern persuaded a medical advisory panel in 2012 to recommend adding mesothelioma to the list of cancers and diseases for which firefighters and first responders should receive compensation and treatment.
- Old Fire Houses and Asbestos – The renovation and remodeling of older fire halls and boiler rooms can expose firefighters to cancer-causing asbestos fibers if the work is not conducted properly.
- Firefighters’ Turnout Gear and Asbestos – Firefighters’ protective gear, such as helmets, gloves and pumps, no longer contains asbestos as it once did. But firefighters may have their turnout gear coated with toxic asbestos dust while battling a fire or moving about in a fire-damaged structure.
- Arson Investigators and Asbestos Exposure – As part of a fire scene investigation, arson investigators spend hours at a fire scene, identifying and preserving evidence of arson. When a blaze occurs in an older house or building, there is a chance that the structure contains asbestos materials such as asbestos insulation, asbestos floor coverings and asbestos pipe wrap.
- Firefighters’ Families and Secondhand Exposure to Asbestos – Older building materials and boilers encountered during the course of fighting a fire may contain asbestos. Firefighters can carry asbestos dust into their homes, exposing their families to dangerous asbestos fibers.
