This summer and autumn, I have thanked almost every firefighter I have encountered in Dubois. At a recent party to celebrate the extermination of the Pack Trail Fire, I said many “thank yous” while members of the remaining crew danced the evening away with my neighbors.  Opinion “And thank you for your hospitality,” many firefighters said to me, in return. As if it were enough merely to be welcoming to those who devote their time and tremendous energy — and risk their lives — to save our homes. I wished I could do more than just say thank you to every one of the hundreds who have come here since Labor Day to fight the fires nearby. Then, when I told a doctor friend who lives out East about the lung-scorching smoke that sometimes blanketed our valley, he mentioned something that inspired a suggestion.  Of course, we are all concerned that “our” firefighters will be injured while on duty. But he told me about a longer-term hazard: the increased risk of cancer. Later, he emailed me a long analysis from the International Agency for Cancer Research, published last year, which concluded that “occupational exposure as a firefighter is carcinogenic.” It mentioned that wildland firefighters are exposed to fire for longer periods than municipal firefighters, often being deployed for weeks on end and sent to several wildfires in succession, with only brief rest periods in between. A new study, published last month in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, is the first rigorous analysis of the cancer risk specific to wildland firefighters in particular. Headed by a team from the US Forest Service and the US Department of the Interior, it found “consistent evidence that wildland firefighters are regularly exposed to carcinogens” including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, asbestos and volatile organic compounds, which have been detected not only in their respiratory systems but also in their skin and their urine. I have raised the issue of the cancer risk with several on the incident management teams, and they all knew about it. One crew member told me that her own work as a wildland firefighter had inspired her daughter and son-in-law to enter the same field. Now she worries about them even more than herself. “It’s not just the risk from the smoke,” she told me. “It’s also the ‘forever chemicals’ in our gear.” A firefighter performs burn operations as crews work to contain the Pack Trail Fire. (InciWeb) The people who fight our forest fires are at special risk not only because of the length of their exposure, according to studies I have read recently, but because they are less likely than urban firefighters to wear effective respiratory gear. It’s just too cumbersome when they have to go into remote areas in the wilderness. Even members of the incident command who don’t venture into the wilderness, but who are in fires’ vicinity, are also at increased cancer risk, according to a 2019 study. In addition, research has shown that about a third of wildland firefighters are at increased cardiovascular risk for various reasons.  Beyond that is the risk of psychological harm — not surprising when you think about it — for people who isolate themselves from friends and family, at considerable danger, for months on end.  Although many of us are unaware of the long-term risks of wildland firefighting, the federal government has sponsored research in this area for many years. It has established a registry to document the specific cancer risks to firefighters. Wyoming, to its credit, has passed legislation to mandate cancer screening for firefighters. But health insurance may not cover medical care for cancers that arise years after exposure to a fire — especially for the many wildland firefighters who are volunteers, and especially when science has not yet definitively established which cancers are caused by fighting fires and what are the biological pathways that cause them.  How can we effectively express our thanks to the hundreds of individuals who have come to our region this summer to control the wildfires? We can resist forgetting about them as the snow begins to fall and the air remains clear. We can send donations to the nonprofit organizations that exist to help them and their families now, such as the Wildland Firefighters Foundation and the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.  At least we can do that. The post An even better way to thank the forest firefighters appeared first on WyoFile .