Laws Intended To Protect Firefighters Who Get Cancer Often Lack Teeth

Doctors told Steve Dillman the throat cancer he was diagnosed with in 2008 came from smoking. He knew it didn't.

"I thought it had to be job-related because I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't chew. I don't drink excessively ... and that's the three main criterias," he says.

But Dillman did spend 38 years as an Indianapolis firefighter — and that included running into burning buildings.

Dillman, who's now retired, recalls one fire on Aug. 1, 1985. That day, his fire station responded to a call at the American Fletcher National Bank warehouse in downtown Indianapolis.

Firefighters noticed something strange and painful after they put out the flames. Everywhere they sweated – under their arms, around their groins – their skin peeled, like it had been sunburned.

Dillman later learned the warehouse was filled with boxes treated with a flame-retardant chemical that sent toxic gases into the air – including formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.

Dillman was diagnosed with prostate cancer 16 years later, and throat cancer seven years after that.

"It's just an evil thing that we have to deal with," 74-year-old Dillman says.