IN MEMORIAM: "His name was "STAY LOW" DAN and he was my friend!"

HONORING NATIONAL FIRST RESPONDERS  POWERHOUSE MENTOR - By: Lennard Gettz (F.A.C.E.S.)

7/22/2024- Dan Noonan forever changed the optics of what it meant to be an advocate for the first responder.  He remains as one of my personal champions and a fire stoker in my public advocacy for cancer care.

I had the pleasure of co-producing "THE FIRE STILL BURNS" video documentary with Dan.  It was a spotlight on the 1975 NYT Tel Exchange Fire- an historical disaster that Dan turned into a n educational crusade and a commemoration for its 699 FDNY responders.  Dan and I spent countless hours filming and capturing his narration about the event.  He was so committed to re-tell and and re-live that dreaded fire for the benefit of anyone who fights fires with their own lives.  He uncovered and offered countless lessons from this fire - from topics of safety, prevention to getting proactive health checkups. 

After decades of advocating for the 699 firefighters who were trapped in the dark abyss and the killer smoke of the NY Telephone building fire, Dan finally got his commemoration for all those who perished and those remaining 'old timers' from the fire.  

If you have had the honor of hearing any of Dan’s presentations, he delivered nothing short of THUNDER from his voice, his heart and the souls of the many whose voice traveled with him.  The disaster of 1975 taught us all so much about the risks behind modern fires, but it remains a landmark for our research and education.  When I look at Dan Noonan’s towering figure, I see him as a beacon for us all - unwavering in his resolve and a guardian of a powerful vision, fulfilling a 43 year old promise to be the voice of so many who sacrificed without hesitation to protect our great city.   Dan continues to stand proudly and stand tall with the greatest unifying message of them all- to NEVER FORGET!

In the spirit of doing our part and making a difference, I proudly stood side by side with all members of the fire service, active and retired- including all advocates and foundations.  On behalf of the many firefighters health advocates and organizations, Dan remains our inspiration to responding to a call of need and doing all that we can for our community.

His name was "STAY LOW" DAN NOONAN and he was my friend!  

.......................................................................................................................................................................

REPRISED FROM 5/22/2022: 

From Small Firehouses to the FD Academy: A Landmark of Perseverance and A NEW DAY FOR "GET CHECKED NOW!" 

Seeing Dr. Robert Bard (F.A.C.E.S. Medical director) on that FDNY podium at the Fire Academy stoked a long awaited exhale of a dream come true from our many fellow advocates! Where DAN NOONAN's mission to bring honor to the 699 responders of the 1975 NY Tel Fire honored and finally commemorated in this day was a major touchdown! The patriarch of medical diagnostics joined Dan to speak to the national fire service community as 'a gradeful New Yorker", raising the awareness about the sacrifice of first responders of one of "NYC's first major cancer clusters" is an historical landmark for every FF safety advocate including our "Get Checked Now!" program. (see video)

---

OP ED: Mitigating Skepticism - Vetting FREE Cancer Screening Programs

 By: "Cousin Sal" Banchitta, Ret FF FDNY

If the term "Occupational Cancers" is not in our modern dictionary just yet, it's certainly a concept that is all around us lately. As a retired firefighter, more and more of my friends are (lately) coming up with diagnoses that could only have come from the job. To prove it is the first hurdle and to face the cancer clinically is the next. That means affording the treatments and shaping your life for the battle ahead. Recently, I was invited to a Skin Cancer Screening at the Fire Academy in Randall's Island. It was a joint venture between the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) and the Firefighters Cancer Support Network (FCSN). It was clinically directed by Dr. Christine Kannler- a dermatologist from Massachusetts.

At first glance, this sounds like a great idea that's long-time coming. But as a New Yorker who's been burned enough times (no pun intended), we tend to wonder "what are they REALLY selling?" From experience, many health programs pitch to the fire service practically on a daily basis. Because firefighting is one of the most dangerous jobs, every marketing department of every insurance and pharmaceutical company knows this- and often looks to exploit this. After enough cleverly crafted sales pitches that turned out to be smoke and mirrors and incentivized come-ons, leaderships in the fire service (especially in New York) have become so SKEPTICAL when something comes at them as "FREE".

Captain Chris Conner of the Bedford (TX) Fire Dept. corroborated this with his own experiences with gene testing products and the many sales reps from safety equipment manufacturers. "Sales reps love to send us free samples to grab our attention hoping to get firefighters to give a testimonial about their products. Getting an endorsement from the fire department can be big $$ for these vendors, but this puts us at risk (liability-wise) by commercializing our department." 

But as it's turned out...

this skin screening event truly was a FREE exam for firefighters, and it was a great program that held significant value to the public! Its design was to save lives through early detection and it did just that! The back story to Dr. Kannler was that her own brother was a firefighter who passed away from cancer. Because of this, her strong connection to the service became relatable to everyone. Also, thanks to the partnership with the FCSN (an org run by active and retired service personnel), the program turned out to be a real "FOR firefighters, BY firefighters" project- earning the acceptance of a community that truly deserved the help and care that this screening offered.

Today, the AAD/FCSN Screening Program apparently is scheduled at over 40 other firehouses across the country. They proved themselves to be the 'good guys' in San Diego and New York City. To all the captains and chiefs and department heads out there, the message here is to "VET, not AUTO-REJECT". As the battle against cancer in the community continues, we need all the prevention and early detection we can get. 

There's good out there for our members and this story is truly one of them!

If you would like to learn more about the AAD/FCSN Screening Program or plan a skin cancer screening for your firehouse, please visit: Cancer Screening (firefightercancersupport.org)

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SALVATORE BANCHITTA - After a profound 20+ year career in the NY Fire Department, "Cousin" Sal gave all at the fire service- including his last assignment as one of the first responders in Ground Zero (9/11). He considers the firefighter "the first and last line of defense to protect all the members of the community from any catastrophe". His next personal crusade past fire calls is to share his own experiences and his research on the many cancer cases found "from the job" to drive his bretheren to heed NYCRA's cancer prevention message of "Get Checked Now!" Sal continues to volunteer as a speaker in firehouses and FF meetings, contributing his unique presentation style and counseling approach known only as "FROM THE KITCHEN"- a parlance between firefighters. (See Cousin Sal's intro video)

---

Improving the Hearing Health of First Responders

Resilience Toolbox interviewed Suhrud Rajguru, Ph.D., the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RestorEar Devices, who is a Professor at the University of Miami. We spoke about the challenges faced by first responders frequently exposed to high levels of noise on the job, and the tools available to support their hearing health. Dr. Rajguru's team created the first FDA-registered and research-backed hearing health device called ReBound by RestorEar, designed to minimize hearing damage after exposure to loud noises.

Dr Rajguru continues:

For several years, The University of Miami has been working through the Firefighter Cancer Initiative with fire departments across Florida, specifically several fire departments in South Florida. We started thinking about how we could take the partnership the University of Miami has built with the fire service to address the challenges of hearing loss and balance dysfunction that occurs in firefighters due to the noise exposure they get while performing their duties.

All of us should be concerned about hearing health. Hearing loss has been associated with neurocognitive decline and Alzheimer's dementia.  Given the nature of the jobs first responders perform, they are exposed to loud noises from alarms, engines, sirens, water pumps, chainsaws, etc.  This can be quite extreme and can create damage to the hearing organs in the inner ear very early on. Often those damages go undiagnosed and undetected and can have long-term hearing and health consequences. Given the critical nature of the jobs that firefighters and first responders perform, it’s important that we protect their hearing health early on because we want to help them have healthy long-term outcomes.

One of the challenges with hearing loss is protection versus prevention. We should protect our hearing when possible. We can wear ear plugs or over-the-ear devices to reduce and mitigate loud noises from affecting our inner ears and causing that initial damage or trauma. But we know there are challenges with that, especially in the first responder job, where situational awareness is key. Given the unique needs of first responders, hearing protection may only be feasible some of the time.

At RestorEar we started thinking about prevention: how do we prevent acute damages that are occurring as we get exposed on the job? How does that lead to the prevention of long-term health consequences?

We all know whenever we have an injury, the first thing we do is apply ice to reduce inflammation and provide a little bit of cooling. How do we provide that cooling for our hearing? This led us to build RestorEar based on decades of research about mild therapeutic hypothermia (cooling) to reduce the inflammation and damage associated with loud noise exposures.

Working collaboratively with first responders and the general community led us to think about how we can use this therapy. The moment after you’ve had noise exposure, RestorEar’s Rebound is designed to deliver mild hypothermia therapy to reduce the inflammation and hence prevent acute damage, which then helps with long-term damage and consequences.

The hearing and balance of first responders are priceless, however, their exposure to extremely noisy environments makes them susceptible to hearing loss and balance dysfunction. Fortunately, tools have been developed to combat these challenges. Our team is committed to protecting the hearing health of fire service members and first responders and is eager to collaborate with them.

Suhrud Rajguru, Ph.D., is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology at the University of Miami and a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RestorEar Devices, LLC. He completed his undergraduate studies in Mumbai, India prior to pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Utah. Suhrud's research foci are on the investigations of pathophysiology, the diagnosis and treatment of various hearing and balance disorders. An educator, scientist and entrepreneur, he is an author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and is a named inventor on issued and pending patent applications. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health and industry partners and he is actively involved in the education and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. He leads the University of Miami's I-Corps@NCATS program supported by NCATS. He is co-director of the Institute for Neural Engineering at the University of Miami and Director of the Workforce Development program at the Miami CTSI. Recently he was awarded the Merit Grant by Veterans Administration and he’s been appointed as a Health Research Scientist at Miami VA. https://restorear.com/

Step into the world of RESPONDER RESILIENCE, an insightful podcast that sheds light on the challenges and triumphs of firefighters, EMTs, dispatchers, and law enforcement professionals. Hear firsthand accounts from our community's finest as they discuss critical issues on the job and share their experiences with hosts Lt. David Dachinger (ret.), Bonnie Rumilly LCSW/EMT and Dr. Stacy Raymond. Explore topics of mental and physical wellness with emergency services thought leaders, and get ready to be inspired and gain a deeper appreciation for their sacrifices and resilience.

Copyright Notice: The materials provided on this web-based article are copyrighted and the intellectual property of the publishers/producers (F.A.C.E.S.- Firefighters Against Cancer & Exposures, The NY Cancer Resource Alliance/IntermediaWorx inc. and The AngioFoundation). It is provided publicly strictly for informational purposes within non-commercial use and not for purposes of resale, distribution, public display or performance. Unless otherwise indicated on this web based page, sharing, re-posting, re-publishing of this work is strictly prohibited without due permission from the publishers.  Also, certain content may be licensed from third-parties. The licenses for some of this Content may contain additional terms. When such Content licenses contain additional terms, we will make these terms available to you on those pages (which his incorporated herein by reference).The publishers/producers of this site and its contents such as videos, graphics, text, and other materials published are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, please always seek the advice of your physician or a qualified health provider. Do not postpone or disregard any professional medical advice over something you may have seen or read on this website. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 9-1-1 immediately.  This website does not support, endorse or recommend any specific products, tests, physicians, procedures, treatment opinions or other information that may be mentioned on this site. Referencing any content or information seen or published in this website or shared by other visitors of this website is solely at your own risk. The publishers/producers of this Internet web site reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, disable access to, or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of this Internet web site or any information contained thereon without liability or notice to you.