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Taylor fighting for firefighters

Steubenville’s Michael Taylor remains a fighter for his profession after retirement.

Taylor, who retired earlier this year as an assistant chief with the Steubenville Fire Department, remains a vibrant advocate for issues for firefighters as president of the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters.

He took part as a guest on Sen. Sherrod Brown’s weekly telephone press conference Wednesday, offering a professional update on the impact of cancer on the fire service.

Firefighters over the years have adapted as science caught up with the macho bravado of the profession. What was once unheard of years ago is now accepted as commonplace: Wearing breathing apparatus before entering a burning structure, being sure to wear all gear properly, including gloves, and riding in enclosed-cab trucks, for example.

What Taylor remains busy fighting is the need to reduce the cancer rates among firefighters, which are far greater than the general population. What is known is not only do the firefighters need to protect their lungs, they also have to battle having the chemicals emitted by burning materials from absorbing into the skin, and thus into the bloodstream.

Taylor was on the Democrat senator’s call to talk about a bill firefighters, including Taylor, had been advocating that was signed into law by President Trump. The bill requires the Centers for Disease Control to establish a voluntary database of firefighters who are stricken with cancer.

The hope is that firefighters across the nation will offer their information to help other firefighters, just as they back one another up every day on the job.

The data, combined with other research, could lead to new types of gear and more ways to prevent the people who save us from slowly being killed over the long term after surviving danger daily in the line of duty.

As the CDC develops the database, we urge area firefighters to take part if, sadly, they have been impacted by cancer. It’s the least that can be done to respect a strong advocate from the local fire ranks embodied by Taylor.

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