Firefighters donโt just have to worry about battling fires, but also what chemicals they are being exposed to while on the front lines and how it affects their health, especially women firefighters. The Tucson Fire Department (TFD) and the University of Arizona (UA) have been working on multiple projects under the Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study (FFCCS) researching the health risks firefighters face, including a Women Firefighters Study – evaluating causes of stress, cancer, and harmful effects on reproductive health. The Women Firefighter Study began in 2020 and as of June 2025, 1,179 women firefighters have enrolled from more than 200 departments across 30 states.
Over 25 women firefighters from TFD are participants in the study and in Arizona, there are more than 100. Sharon McDonough, TFD Fire Chief, says this study is extremely important because she wants her employees to stay healthy and well, and one of the biggest ways to do that is by prevention. “It requires we have an understanding what the risks are in the first place, so that’s what this study helps us find,” Chief McDonough said. She said some of the concerns are, โCould some of our work cause miscarriage or premature birth or an increase in breast cancer, or any of those things that are magnified because of the toxins weโre exposed to?”
To answer these questions, every two years, blood and urine is collected from the participants to see if there are any changes in their bodies. Some of the blood samples are frozen in -80 degree Celsius freezers to follow firefighters over time. John Gulotta, TFD Safety Captain and UA research liaison, has worked with Dr. Jeff Burgess, a professor at UAโs Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, since 2014 when FFCCS began. Gulotta says the reason for separating the blood into smaller tubes called aliquots is to have more than one sample to be able to test. โSo the next five years, the science may catch up to us and say, ‘hey we need to look at this,’ well guess what. We have that,” Gulotta said.
