12 firefighters at Grenfell Tower have been diagnosed with cancer

BAt least 12 of the more than 1,300 firefighters who battled the Grenfell Tower fire in London, England, have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. According to the British newspaper Mirror, which cites medical reports, most of the cases are related to digestive cancers and leukemia.

Cases of cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), heart disease and kidney failure were also recorded..

It is recalled that Grenfell Tower, home to hundreds of people, mostly from the working class, started on the night of June 14, 2017 and quickly spread to the upper floors due to the combustible coating laid the previous year. The incident created a stir 72 people died and more than 70 were injured.

Firefighters and fire survivors demanded medical tests after a list of first responders diagnosed with cancer was published, according to an investigation by the Mirror. “We fear that some terrible information will be released soon. Shocking”A firefighter admitted to the newspaper.

This may be due to the fact that some firefighters spent more than 10 hours in dirty uniforms and others were in the basement with smoke for about six hours. Investigations carried out on the ruins revealed that High concentrations of carcinogenic chemicals.

“We now know that firefighters are exposed to health and life-threatening chemicals as a result of their occupation, and certainly would have been in an incident of the scale and magnitude of the Grenfell Tower fire. However, firefighters are being left in the dark by the lack of routine health monitoring and inadequate exposure controls in the UK,” UK Firefighters said. Ricardo de la Torre from the association told the Mirror.

Because some types of cancer linked to exposure to cancer-causing chemicals can take up to 25 years to be diagnosed, these 12 cases may be the first to be discovered.

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