Brian Leishman

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. My thanks go to my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) for securing this important debate and bringing this issue to Westminster Hall. In July 2022, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organisation, concluded that the occupation of firefighting is carcinogenic, linking it to firefighters’ exposure to toxicants present in fire effluents. Only six months later, a University of Central Lancashire study on Scottish firefighters, commissioned by the Fire Brigades Union, showed that firefighters have higher cancer and disease mortality rates than the general public. Tragically, many firefighters with rare cancers are diagnosed at the terminal stage. Firefighters are directly exposed to potentially large quantities of toxins and fire effluents on a regular basis. Fire effluent is a cocktail of toxic, irritant and carcinogenic species, which vary depending on the specific materials burning and the fire conditions at an incident. Exposure through inhalation, ingestion or dermal absorption is likely to be a significant risk factor for acquiring cancers and diseases. Research has found that such toxins are often unknowingly transported back to stations and firefighters’ homes, further increasing their exposure. Even if the levels of contamination at fire stations are much lower than the levels at the incidents, prolonged exposures to potentially harmful contaminants add up over a lifetime of service, with significant health consequences. One example is exposure to soot. Some 93% of firefighters have noticed soot in their nose after an incident: 30% said that it remained until they washed, 32% said that it was still noticeable for a few hours after washing, 23% said that it remained for up to a day and 6% said that it remained for more than a day. Only 6% reported not noticing soot at all.