2.25.16 - Firefighters push for presumptive cancer coverage for volunteers
"As again firefighters push for presumptive cancer coverage for volunteers statewide, they often come back to a central theme: Carcinogens in the acrid black smoke of a fire don’t care who volunteers and who gets paid."
“A lot of people don’t realize that the modern fires today burn faster, hotter and are a lot more toxic than years ago,” said Tony Cruz, New York director of the Firefighter Cancer Support Network and a cancer survivor. “Homes are filled with petroleum products … synthetics, plastics, all of the stuff that gives off carcinogens. These are the things that firefighters who volunteer in New York state are taking in each and every day when they go out the door.”