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By Gary Giacomo
In 2018, Congress passed the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, which directed the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to develop a registry to study cancer among firefighters.
NIOSH launched the National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer in April 2023. By matching information provided by participating NFR firefighters with cancer diagnosis information from state cancer registries, NIOSH researchers will be able to study the relationship between firefighting and cancer outcomes over time.
Registration is open to all firefighters in the United States – whether paid or volunteer, active or retired, with or without cancer, and no matter their length of service. Participation is voluntary, and the registry is completed online.
As of April 2024, more than 12,000 firefighters had enrolled. NIOSH hopes this number will continue to grow so that the dataset in the NFR will reflect the diversity of our nation’s firefighters and will provide stronger evidence to improve cancer prevention measures.
To help increase those participation numbers, NIOSH has launched an initiative to recognize fire departments who achieve high participation rates in the NFR among their active firefighters: The Gold Helmet Challenge. Any department who enrolls 50% of their active firefighters or more than 300 active firefighters in the NFR will be recognized as a Gold Helmet Department. Gold Helmet Departments receive a certificate, web badge, and social media posts to share.
NIOSH is now inviting all fire departments to the Gold Helmet Challenge. Visit NIOSH’s Gold Helmet Department page to learn more about how to sign up. Use #NFRGoldHelmet to share the Gold Helmet Challenge on social media.
Join the NFR at NFR.CDC.gov.