The state of Texas awarded UTHealth Houston School of Public Health $5 million over two years for early detection and research, led by principal investigator Jooyeon Hwang, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, on cancer risk among firefighters in Texas.
Repeated exposure to harmful chemicals in fire smoke, common in the work of firefighters, can cause long-term chronic health problems including cancer, according to previous work by Hwang. Firefighters have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Between 2019 and 2023, the number of firefighters in Texas diagnosed with cancer increased nearly five times from 19 cases to 91, according to the Texas Commission on Fire Protection annual report. While other studies have looked at cancer risks in firefighters across the U.S., none have focused specifically on Texas, where more than 55,000 firefighters live and work, Hwang said…