PARMA, Ohio — NBC News reports that firefighters who were at ground zero in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 are continuing to die from illnesses related to the recovery efforts after the terrorist attacks.
In all, 370 FDNY firefighters have died since that tragic day 23 years ago, growing the awareness surrounding fire department health and safety practices.
"9/11 was a big change for the whole country, but the fire service was even stronger in the changes that took place," Chief Michael Lasky of the Parma Fire Department told 3News on Wednesday.
That includes cancer awareness.
"The things that we're looking for now, we didn't pay attention back then, and as a result of it, unfortunately, we lost a lot of our members because of that," Lasky explained.
Lasky is proud to announce that his department has recently received a $92,176 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant, enabling all 112 members to get cancer screenings.
Earlier this year, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center began offering the Galleri test, a first-of-its-kind MCED blood test, to Northeast Ohio patients and first responders.
"It tests you for 52 different types of cancer," Lasky said.
Lasky told us each cancer screening has a baseline cost of $750, and that each firefighter will go through a fully intensive physical for about three-and-a-half hours. Results will be shared on the same day.
University Hospitals Chief of Surgical Oncology Dr. Jordan Winter explained that firefighters have a 10% to 30% higher chance of getting cancer because of the chemicals they're exposed to on the job.
"This has to do with the chemistry of breakdown and of different chemicals related to heat and the fire which convert these chemicals into agents that can actually manipulate DNA in cells when inhaled or they get into the bloodstream," he said.
Which is why he believes many lives could be saved at Parma Fire through the cancer screenings.
"Early detection really is the holy grail of cancer treatment," Winter said.
Firefighters' health has been in the spotlight for years now. In 2017, Ohio passed the Michael Louis Palumbo Jr. Act, which allows some firefighters to receive worker's compensation if they are diagnosed with cancer. It's named for Mike Palumbo, the Beachwood fire captain who died after battling occupational brain cancer.