On the heels of a national push to extend health benefits for 9/11 first responders, local firefighters are calling out North Carolina lawmakers.
As it stands, firefighters in North and South Carolina have to go through insurance to pay for cancer treatments. 33 other states include certain cancers in workers' compensation.
Charlotte firefighter Jason Barringer knew his job came with risks, but he never imagined it would include stage two non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“Telling them was one of the hardest things that I've had to do…to actually tell them that, 'hey, Dad's got cancer,’” Barringer told FOX 46.
The CDC recognizes inside that smoke are carcinogens like formaldehyde, asbestos and arsenic.
A study of 30,000 firefighters from 1950-2009 revealed a relation between firefighting and cancer with a new finding of excess malignant mesothelioma.