Recent research has shown that firefighters have a higher risk of being diagnosed with certain types of cancer. This week, President Donald Trump signed into law an order requiring the creation of a voluntary registry to collect data on cancer incidence among firefighters.
Paul Doughty, a Providence firefighter on the city's squad of arson investigators, and the president of the city's chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters union said Wednesday he's excited to see fire departments getting help tracking the issue.
Doughty's hope is that a correlation can be found, better treatment can follow, and one day, firefighters might be prevented from getting some cancers that could potentially have been exacerbated while they were fighting fires.