I’m pretty sure I’ve got some cancer cells floating around. My co-worker is in the hospital about to die from cancer. They thought they had it but it came back stronger. He’s got two kids under 7 years old. I have a former Captain that got testicular cancer and had to have one removed. Had another co-worker that beat his cancer and came back to work. Many, many more that I do not know personally but heard of or are acquainted with that have gotten cancer.
There have been people in this job 5 years and get lung cancer. If you burn leaves for 20 years only once or twice a year you probably have the same risk.
My personal advice would be to mulch/ composte and if you do burn, do it in a high pressure weather system and not low pressure. High pressure and low humidity will allow the smoke to lift and not settle and linger. Also, don’t burn wet leaves. Wet smoke is heavier. Of course, the best burning conditions (for health and air quality) coincides with the highest chance of wildfire. It is possible to have a safe burn on a high pressure/low humidity day. Watch the wind and create distance between the piles and adjacent fuel so that you can light it and walk away from it.
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A brief look - wildland firefighter smoke exposure and risk of lung and cardiovascular disease - Wildfire Today
By
Kathleen M. Navarro, U.S. Forest Service
(currently with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Wildland firefighters are exposed to health hazards including inhaling hazardous pollutants from the combustion of live and dead vegetation (smoke), and breathing in ash and soil dust, while working long shifts with no respiratory protection. This research brief summarizes a study estimating long-term health impacts of smoke exposure for wildland firefighters (Navarro et al. 2019). The study estimated relative risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality from existing particulate matter (PM) exposure-response relationships using a measured PM concentration from smoke and breathing rates from previous wildland firefighter studies across different exposure scenarios.
Key Findings:
- Firefighters who worked both short and long seasons (49 days and 98 days per year, respectively) were exposed to increased lifetime doses of PM4 across all career durations (5-25 years).
- Wildland firefighters were estimated to be at increased risk of lung cancer (8 to 43 percent) and cardiovascular disease (16 to 30 percent) mortality across all season lengths and career durations.
- These findings suggest that wildland firefighters should reduce exposure to smoke in any way possible