Last week the smaller print piece in the Free Lance side bar labeled “Local Scene” got my attention. The title “State to study cancer risk of fighting wildfires” had me opening the paper focused on further information. Everyone is interested in cancer risk.
Our surrounding hills, beautifully green in the winter but horribly brittle and dry in the summer can provide wildfire fodder. This information hits to the heart of the matter: wildfires, smoke and cancer.
Two universities, UCLA & UC Davis, in cooperation with Cal Fire will research a study of length and depth. Comprising the depth are 3,500 firefighters throughout the state with a two year length proposed, ensuring a dependable result of information.
Firefighters who responded to the Eaton and Palisades Los Angeles fires will receive special attention. Those blood samples can be studied compared to fire fighters who were not fighting fires in southern California but fighting fires in northern California for us.
True, we know that smoking causes cancer; however, that result rests on cigarette smoking data. This study will focus on wildfires and what exactly happens to the body when exposed to smoke inhalation when fighting wildfires.
How the body reacts to smoke inhalation and how changes lead to cancer risk needs illuminating study. The generous availability of 3,500 firefighters will be giving frequent blood draws.
At a time when valuable research is being interrupted in other universities, a breath of fresh air such as this research on smoky air can be extraordinarily helpful.
Hopefully, a study such as this would focus more clearly on a heating planet which causes more wildfires with lots of smoke and cancer risk. This circle of heat cries for severing.
Unfortunately, our federal administration wants to remove the brakes on car exhaust that our state has applied to this heat generation. Hopefully, the feds will keep their hands off our state and off our health and welfare.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
