National Firefighter Registry Subcommittee (NFRS)

The Firefighter Cancer Registry Act of 2018 mandated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a voluntary registry of firefighters to collect health and occupational information to determine cancer incidence in the U.S. fire service. In response to this mandate, CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) established the National Firefighter Registry (NFR).

The Act also mandated consultation with relevant stakeholders regarding the NFR, including:

1. Public health experts with experience in developing and maintaining cancer registries;
2. Epidemiologists with experience in studying cancer incidence;
3. Clinicians with experience in diagnosing and treating cancer incidence;
4. Active and retired, paid-on-call, and career firefighters as well as relevant national fire and emergency response organizations;
5. State health agencies; and
6. State departments of homeland security.

Subcommittee Charge

To meet this requirement, NIOSH’s Director, Dr. John Howard, charged the NIOSH Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) to develop a subcommittee with two co-chairs from the BSC at large to provide advice on establishing and operating the NFR. Additionally, Dr. Howard asked the subcommittee to advise on the following issues required by the Act:

1. Increasing awareness of the NFR and encouraging participation among volunteer, paid-on-call, and career firefighters.
2. Consideration of unique data collection needs that may arise to generate a statistically reliable representation of minority, female, and volunteer firefighters, including methods, as needed, to encourage participation from such populations.
3. Information on how the Secretary will store data and provide electronic access to relevant health information.
4. Working in consultation with the experts included in the subcommittee to develop a reliable and standardized method for estimating the number of fire incidents attended by a firefighter as well as the type of fire incident so attended in the case such firefighter is unable to provide such information.
5. How new information about firefighters will be submitted to the NFR.
6. How information about firefighters will be maintained and updated in the NFR over time.
7. A method for estimating the number of fire incidents attended by a firefighter as well as the type of fire incident so attended in the case such a firefighter is unable to provide such information.
8. Further information, as deemed necessary.

See the full NFRS charge [PDF – 289 KB].

The NFRS will meet as needed. NFRS meetings are open to the public virtually. Virtual attendance will be provided as indicated in the Federal Register Notices published for each meeting. Please see the registration page for more details.