Unpopular Opinions In the Fire Service

[u/Launch_Rockface]

I am curious what other peoples unpopular opinions of the fire service are? I know there are alot of things we are doing or trying to do to improve the fire service as far as training and wellness, but I also know alot of it is just not that great in my opinion.

[u/Strict-Canary-4175]

“Being out of shape and Sleep deprivation causes more cancer” No it doesn’t. For a few reasons.

The first one is because sleep deprivation doesn’t cause cancer. Secondly, because yeah. It’s the gear. There definitely are studies on it, but let’s say all of the data was just things we can observe.

If it’s not the gear why do firemen get cancer at such an elevated rate? Why is a majority of the cancer we get inside where our bunker pants are (bladder, prostate, colon, uterine)? And we wear those more often than the rest of our gear? Seems like maybe it’s the gear.

And if it’s the sleep deprivation and being out of shape, why isn’t cancer effecting fat guys who work a ton of overtime more often? It doesn’t. So it seems like that’s not the problem. Matter of fact; I was eating so clean it was almost an ED and running ultra marathons when I got diagnosed with cancer. So I don’t think it was that I was fat and sleepy.

I also had to have pretty extensive genetic testing done when I had cancer because I was abandoned at birth so I have no family history. In which they found that my cancer was occupational. From the PFAS in the gear.

If you want to work out in gear, go ahead. Save that money and that time though because your city isn’t going to go out of their way for you. Good luck big dog

[u/timmy6591 → u/Strict-Canary-4175]

Categorically wrong on all counts. Your anecdotal observations don't outweigh numerous scientific studies showing the opposite.

[u/Strict-Canary-4175 → u/timmy6591]

Showing that….. our gear doesn’t cause cancer? What studies? Show that work

[u/timmy6591 → u/Strict-Canary-4175]

No, you assertion that sleep deprivation doesn't cause cancer. 1000% wrong. The gear contributes but you're not in fires wearing the gear every shift. You are getting poor/disrupted sleep on every shift. Here's my work.

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-024-19313-z

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7953221

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2024.1336487/full

https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-023-11392-2

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0074723

Immune system suppression: One night with only 4 hours of sleep causes a ~70% drop in natural killer (NK) cell activity in healthy adults—cells vital for eliminating early-stage cancer cells

Animal study evidence: Mice with restricted sleep developed tumors ~200% larger and experienced metastasis, even when stress-induced factors were controlled

Aging and immunity: As people age, sleep quality declines—compromising adaptive immune defenses and increasing vulnerability to cancer

Sleep as a regulatory keystone: Adequate sleep supports DNA repair, immune surveillance, and hormonal balance—acting as a foundational component in cancer prevention .

https://peterattiamd.com/fighting-cancer-improving-immune-function-with-sleep/?utm_source=chatgpt.com