Focus on Your Health in February

February 4, 2020

February is both National Cancer Prevention Month and American Heart Month. These are two topics that should be of special interest to volunteer firefighters and EMS providers. Heart attack remains the leading cause of on-duty firefighter fatalities, and cancer is one of the most critical threats facing firefighters.

The NVFC has many health and wellness resources available to help you protect your health and Serve Strong as a responder. These include the Lavender Ribbon Report: Best Practices for Preventing Firefighter Cancer and the Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program, which are designed to reduce your risks of occupational cancer and heart disease.

In addition, the NVFC has three free webinars in February relating to occupational cancer and exposure risk reduction; view our calendar to learn more and register. We also have several courses in our Virtual Classroom on critical health and wellness topics.

Be an advocate for your own health and wellness as well as the health of your team members. Use February to take stock of where you are and what you and your department can be doing to improve. Taking steps to protect your health now will help prevent tragic outcomes later.