The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has issued a position statement in support of the National Firefighter Registry.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is in the process of starting their enrolment initiative for the National Firefighter Registry (NFR), a voluntary database that will help increase the understanding of the link between on-the-job exposures and cancer rates among firefighters.

Over the next month, NIOSH will be enrolling firefighters at select fire departments for a “soft rollout” of the NFR, followed by a full launch in January to align with Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month. The goal is to enroll at least 200,000 firefighters.

The NVFC’s position statement strongly supports the NFR and recommends that all members of the fire service enroll. The statement elaborates on the importance of the NFR, expressing that many existing studies showing potential links to cancer and firefighting lack participation from volunteer firefighters and contain other significant knowledge gaps. It also thanks NIOSH for making privacy and data security top priorities for the NFR.

View the NVFC’s position statement supporting the NFR here. Once it become active, the NFR may be accessed at https://NFR.cdc.gov.