Thursday, firefighters around the Suncoast decided to battle something other than a fire. Firefighters took part in a screening involving Cancer Dogs at Manatee Technical College. The interesting idea is this. The emergency personnel breathe into a mask and the specially trained dogs will remotely examine the “breath”, and in doing so determine if there is cancer present. The size of cancer is at the center of the examination. Doctors are supposedly only able to recognize cancer at a size of around a half inch. A cancer dog can find a cancer spot that is much smaller. In the United States, firefighters are more prone to cancer than probably any other occupation.
