Langdoc says, “There is concern that this group of workers may be at risk for numerous occupational cancers.”

DALLAS, Tex. (June 4, 2010) Baron & Budd, P.C. attorney John Langdoc commended a federal study being conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in partnership with the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) concerning the cancer risk among firefighters.

Langdoc said, “Firefighters are performing a tremendous public service for all of us. The environmental toxins they can encounter in their jobs are vast, and we may not be doing everything we can to protect firefighters, who work so hard to protect the rest of us.”

Firefighters can be exposed to smoke, soot, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other byproducts of combustion. The multi-year study will include a records review of approximately 18,000 current and former career firefighters from urban and suburban fire departments. Study results will be shared with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is conducting an ongoing review of the cancer risk of firefighting.

“We owe it to them to understand exactly what risks they face and to make their job safer,” said Langdoc.

About Baron & Budd, P.C.

Dallas-based Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Baton Rouge, Austin and Beverly Hills, is a nationally recognized law firm with more than three decades’ experience representing people and communities harmed by corporate negligence. The firm resolved one of the first asbestos cases in the United States in the 1970s. John Langdoc and other Baron & Budd attorneys continue to serve people diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer. The cornerstone of the firm is toxic tort litigation, representing individuals and public entities seeking redress from corporate polluters and manufacturers of hazardous products.