Cancer
scare strikes our firefighters
The first two stories (below)
make me wonder if exposure to electro magnetic radiation may be
harming these firefighters? Is EMR from their communications
system harming them? Are there cell phone antennas and
communications antennas on or near their fire halls?
The third story, mentions
the Brisbane ABC studio cancer cluster, where electro magnetic
radiation is a strong suspect. Why is the
Queensland Government obstructing scientists from investigating
the cause of cancer? Is there a sinister reason? Do
they suspect EMR as the cancer cause?
A few weeks ago I sent
information about EMR and its links to cancer and ill health, to the
Queensland Firefighters Union. They did not bother to reply!
While I am well aware of the dangers of toxic smoke at fire scenes,
EMR should also be considered. Any intelligent
investigation of these cancers must involve exposure to electro
magnetic radiation as a strong suspect!
Martin
Cancer
scare strikes our firefighters
Six serving and retired
firefighters have been reported as suffering from cancer.
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3769744
By Nikkii Joyce
SIX Toowoomba firefighters are
part of the growing number of Queensland Fire and Rescue Service
staff battling cancer.
The figures were revealed
yesterday as a statewide investigation was launched into brain
cancer clusters in fire stations.
The United Firefighters Union
(UFU) announced that six active or retired Toowoomba firefighters
were among 34 in the state battling cancer.
Two cases of testicular cancer,
one case of prostate cancer and three other cancer-related illnesses
in Toowoomba have been reported to the union.
UFU Queensland president Henry
Lawrence said he had received information from the Toowoomba region
confirming a number of firefighters were suffering with cancer.
Mr Lawrence said he was first
notified after he made a call to Queensland Fire and Rescue Service
(QFRS) committees to identify firefighters suffering from the
disease.
He said Toowoomba's cases could
not be identified as a "cluster" due to the varying types
of cancer, but added there was increasing support for action as
numbers of cancer-related illnesses amongst QFRS staff continued to
grow.
"We can't attach any
significance to their occupations without comparative analysis of
the general area and environmental studies," Mr Lawrence said.
"Nonetheless, as numbers
continue to grow, there is certainly some support for there being a
link between the two."
Attempts by The Chronicle to
speak to the city's key figures from the Queensland Fire and Rescue
Service were redirected to the Emergency Services Minister's office.
Sources did confirm that the
Toowoomba incidents of cancer had hit its firefighting community
hard.
The revelation of cancer-related
illnesses amongst firefighters follows the discovery of a cancer
cluster at Atherton fire station in Queensland's far north last
December.
QFRS Deputy Commissioner Iain
Mackenzie, in a statement to The Chronicle, said he was unaware of
the number of firefighters battling cancer in Toowoomba or in other
parts of the state outside Atherton.
Mr Mackenzie said accurate
figures would come from a cross-referencing of firefighters with the
Cancer Registry and not any statewide tests on Queensland
firefighters as reported in metropolitan newspapers.
Minister for Emergency Services
Neil Roberts yesterday proposed a national study into the incidence
of cancer among firefighters.
Mr Lawrence said it was unclear
as to why the job of firefighting was linked with cancer, but
suggested required safety clothing might make them susceptible.
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Firefighters identify more cancer
cases
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23538533-3102,00.html
By Peter
Michael
April 15, 2008 12:00am
FIREFIGHTERS across
Queensland have identified at least 18 more cancer cases in two
regions just a day after a statewide investigation was opened into
brain cancer clusters in fire stations.
In Toowoomba and the North Coast
region, officers yesterday detailed a host of cancer-related
illnesses and deaths including brain tumours, throat cancer and
testicular cancer.
Eight brain cancer, four
prostate, three testicular, one bowel, one leukemia and 12 other
various kinds of cancer cases have been reported to the union,
taking the statewide total of known firefighter cancer cases –
including the five in Atherton – to 34.
United Firefighters Union
president Henry Lawrence asked his members to provide anecdotal
evidence of all serving and retiring firefighters across the state
to battle cancer.
"At this stage there is no
definitive cause but the higher incidence leads us to believe there
must be some link to the business of firefighting," Mr
Lawrence said.
On Sunday, the Government
ordered health authorities to test every firefighter in the state
for brain cancer after a cancer cluster was confirmed at Atherton
fire station in the state's far north.
Tests will involve checking the
medical records of serving and retired firefighters against the
Queensland Cancer Registry to try to identify other possible
clusters.
The Atherton fire station study
found the rate of brain cancer among staff was between 21 and 62
times higher than the Queensland average.
Brain cancer is most commonly
linked to exposure to nuclear decay or ionising radiation.
Mr Lawrence welcomed the widened
statewide investigation into the incidence of brain cancer.
He said there were fears, backed
up by international studies, that firefighters could be exposed to
unknown deadly radiation by the nature of their work.
"There have been a number
of possibilities ranging from the protective clothing we wear,
exposure to toxic smoke, chemical spills or dealing with hazardous
materials," Mr Lawrence said.
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Scientists barred
from cancer data
Michael McKenna | April
18, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23558212-23289,00.html
LIFE-SAVING
cancer research is being blocked by Queensland government
restrictions on scientists gaining access to a register of
sufferers throughout the state.
The Cancer Council of
Queensland has launched unprecedented legal action in Brisbane's
Supreme Court for access to the register to enable independent
study of the disease, including blocked work into why survival
rates are lower in regional and rural Queensland.
Scientists believe the study
may embarrass Queensland Health because it is likely to reveal
detection and treatment standards are failing outside of Brisbane.
Queensland is the only state in
Australia, and one of the few jurisdictions in the Western world,
where researchers require case-by-case approval to access the
cancer register for the development ofprevention and treatment
strategies.
Queensland Health has refused
to release localised cancer statistics and has failed to fund the
collation of data on the stages that cancers are being discovered
in different areas.
The battle has emerged as
suspected cancer clusters - involving the ABC's Brisbane studios
and firefighters in north Queensland - are being investigated by
the Government.
Documents obtained by The
Australian show
that some of Australia's leading scientists - including former
Australian of the Year Ian Frazer - have repeatedly appealed to
Premier Anna Bligh and Health Minister Stephen Robertson to grant
routine access to the data.
The Cancer Council of
Queensland - which was awarded management rights of the register
in 2001 - has been denied access or forced to wait up to a year
for approval to use theinformation and start the research.
A two-year backlog in collating
the data, partly blamed on underfunding, has further blown out the
delays.
Queensland Health has enforced
the approval procedure for access to the register because of
concerns the release of information could identify an individual
sufferer.
In a letter last year to the
council, Queensland Health acting director-general Andrew Wilson
said privacy provisions under the Public Health Act prevented the
department from giving ongoing and open access to research units.
"However, we are constrained in what we can do in
this regard as a combination of certain variables (month and year
of birth, sex, suburb or Statistical Locality Area, country of
birth) is enough to potentially identify a person and hence
invokes the disclosure provisionsof the act," Professsor
Wilson wrote.
The council has argued that members of its
epidemiology unit - set up in 2001 as a government condition for
handing over management of the 26-year-old register - are bound by
confidentiality laws and professional ethics.
Cancer
Council chief executive Jeff Dunn told The
Australian the
data also did not contain personal information - such as names and
addresses - which further ensured privacy.
"While we
are reluctant to take legal action, Queensland Health's refusal to
allow the Cancer Council routine access to the registry data goes
against public health practices around Australia and
internationally,' hesaid.
"These data are critical to
cancer control in Queensland and will point the way to further
detailed research in our mission to prevent and detect cancer."
Professor Dunn said the impasse prevented the council from
delving into the causes behind differences in cancer incidence and
lower survival rates in the bush.
"If the Cancer
Council's legal action is successful, we would use Queensland
cancer registry data to examine differences in cancer incidence
and survival in Queensland," he said.
In a statement
last night, Mr Robertson said he had asked his department to be
"pro-active" in resolving the issue fought out behind
closed doors for more than two years. "I understand the
concerns of the Cancer Council, which is why I've discussed this
with them at some length and have requested a watching brief on
this issue," he said.
"I've been advised this is
a difference of lawyers' opinions about the release of
confidential patient information."
The Supreme Court
action will focus on the agreement on the register, which was
signed on behalf of the council in 2001 by its then chairman,
Queensland's present Chief Justice, Paul deJersey.
The
legal action also follows ongoing disagreement over the funding of
the register.
The Cancer Council yesterday told The
Australian that
there had been no funding increase for the register between 2000
and 2006, despite an annual 11 per cent increase in notifications
of the disease during that period.
A one-off funding
increase of $145,000 was given to the register, still short of the
requested $160,000 and without recurrent funding increases.
The
new funding was needed to reduce the backlog of data going into
the register and to track varying diagnosis patterns at each stage
of the life-threatening disease.
Cancer suffferer Dixie
Spinks, 71, of Bagarra in central Queensland said yesterday that
she could not understand the Government's stance on the issue.
"It is important work and I would be comfortable with
these doctors doing this research," she said.