Breast Cancer Awareness

Have you seen your Anne Arundel County Professional Fire Fighters wearing pink shirts in the month of October in honor of breast cancer awareness?

 While wearing pink during October is commonplace amongst professional athletes, you may have never stopped to wonder why Fire Fighters work so hard to raise awareness.

 In fact, Fire Fighters are disproportionately affected by cancer. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently undertook two large studies focused on Fire Fighter cancer and concluded that Fire Fighters face a 9 percent increase in cancer diagnoses, and a 14 percent increase in cancer-related deaths, compared to the general population in the United States.  The cancer risk for Fire Fighters is so high that Maryland law states that if a Fire Fighter gets cancer, it is presumed the cancer was caused by on the job exposure.  In honor of our Fire Fighters diagnosed with breast cancer, we wear pink during October.

 We start thinking about Breast Cancer awareness each year in July when we begin our tee shirt design competition.  Each Fire Fighter is invited to submit a tee shirt design, and our Executive Board works hard to choose just one of these fantastic entries as the design that will be placed on our shirts.  The 2019 shirt was designed by Fire Fighter J.D. Aument. 

 Our Fire Fighters and members of the community then purchase the shirts in September, with all proceeds going to the Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Cancer Foundation.  While there are many worthwhile charities raising money for cancer patients, we feel it is important to keep the money in our own community that we support every day.    Over the course of the relationship, we’ve donated over $100,000 to the Foundation.

 If you’re interested in supporting your Anne Arundel County Professional Fire Fighters’ efforts, please visit  tinyurl.com/2019aafdpink or call (410) 987-1180.