>> we currently have -- are in the process of ordering 15 new ambulances for our e.m.s. division. we expect delivery of ten of the units in mid to late february , and then five additional units probably 60 to 90 days thereafter. we had the apparatus committee

medications. >> we've had a discussion about that. >> commissioner covington: state of the art, i hope. >> yes. >> commissioner covington: okay. what is the change in the fentanyl deployment, just so everyone knows? >> so we give medication on the ambulances, and the providers, and we've been using morphine. the medical directors have -- for the city and the e.m.s. agency said they want to switch over and use fentanyl and see

it as a better medication for the patients. so we've -- just through the process of switching over, doing some training, and now, on the ambulance, we have deployed fentanyl to give to our patients who are having pain on a pain scale over six per the county policy. >> commissioner covington: is this a trial run or we're committed to this change for the long haul? >> no -- well, we were having issues getting morphine to give to the patients, but even in our discussions with that, many agencies across the state and the country are moving to -- to give fentanyl as a first-line medication for pain. >> commissioner covington: not -- well, morphine doesn't agree with everyone. some people become extremely combative. >> absolutely. >> commissioner covington: so i think that might be very helpful to members of the department as well as to the

patients. >> yeah. so this was a change in department policy. we made the switch, and it's now being deployed in all our ambulances. >> commissioner covington: okay. well, thank you very much. those are all the questions i have. >> president cleaveland: thank you, commissioner covington. commissioner hardeman. >> commissioner hardeman: very sad news you brought, chief, about firefighter killed in action. we're -- i had that happen once in all my decades -- few decades as the head of a union. i had one person die in an automobile accident leaving work. so it can happen, and i'm very sad to hear that.

chief gonzales, so you'll be working with the new president of the 798, john buford, lieutenant buford, and congratulate batallion chief tom o'connor for all his service because he'll be retired by the time we meet again for all his work in local 798. i do have a comment on your report, chief gonzales. inspector -- not inspector, deputy fire marshal tyrone truitt. we had a lunch the other day that was sponsored by the electrical department and their inspectors. it was wonderful to see the

fire department there with their inspectors, because it turned out he was the most popular guy in the room. everyone had a comment for chief truitt. he represented the fire department very well, and i think it was very wise that he was there. i hope he attends again. he was just deluged. there was nobody more sought in the room to talk to him, i thought which was amazing. especially before and after the luncheon. i just thought i would -- i told chief truitt i would mention this, and i did. the e.m.t. graduating ceremony, the theater it was held in -- >> close to my alma maters.

>> commissioner hardeman: yeah. what impressed me was the shape and the energy and the conditioning and the vibrancy that all these e.m.t.s had. and i was saying after they were badged by the chief and put your arm on their shoulder or something, you could feel their role would be great in firefighting suppression. they really were a well-conditioned group. he was very impressed -- not that all of them aren't, but they really stood out, and that was a -- it was a fun thing to go to. >> that career track's available to them. that's why i think it's good that the chief has started that, and that opportunity is there, if they can bump up and get into that academy. it was a good thing. >> commissioner hardeman: yeah. it was my team to go to, and it's an ongoing relatively new class that was handled this way

as different in the past. so they all seemed to enjoy the class and felt they were ready to do their job. so you it. that was it. thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> commissioner hardeman: and thanks for your lengthy -- oh, i take it back. one other thing. on the peer support, the 16,000 that was granted to the peer support on page three of your report, and you thank stephanie phelps, lieutenant cooper, lieutenant baxter for the -- called a wiell-being at work grant request. when approximately was that grant made, requested, and how long did it take to get that 16,000? anybody have any idea? >> you can only surmise. they're only one or two years. >> there's some in the back. >> commissioner hayes-white: i sent mark corso down to a

budget meeting, but i can get that. >> commissioner hardeman: yeah, i just was wondering how long it took. the other one would be on chief ali, which i mentioned once before under the airport, 177 bike medic calls down at the airport. i think that's fantastic. the airport can be so long to get around, especially international if you're on foot. a bike is so unobtrusive. that is so great -- not that there was 177 calls, but the bikes, i'm sure, made a big difference in getting to the patients. >> the bike medic will handle something in the terminal, whereas we might have to take one of our units have off the air field into the terminals. and it's a very limited amount

of staffing down there. i mean, it's enough for the airport, but there's usually 25, 26 people on duty, so having that bike medic was a great thing. and hopefully, the airport will increase that program to a particular extent. >> commissioner hardeman: so does that come from station one, two, or three down there or is it the same station for the bike medic? >> the bike medic roams the terminals. doesn't respond from a station. >> commissioner hardeman: doesn't respond from the station. just handles the -- okay. that's what i wanted to know. thank you. >> president cleaveland: thank you, commissioner hardeman. commissioner veronese? >> commissioner veronese: i'm been instructed to move quickly. >> i know the body language. i've seen it before. >> commissioner veronese: i just want to know the prop c money, since we're trying to help homeless people, i'd love to get an update on that. station 16, can i have a date

as to when those firefighters will be coming home? >> i drive by it every day now. >> commissioner hayes-white: i'm reluctant to give a date because that target has moved so often, and i don't want to give a false date, so we're hearing end of this year. i would be -- i want the -- we will have a proper ribbon cutting on the station. if it gets too close to the holidays, it will be after the first of the year, but we'll let you know. we've been pressing hard with department of public works and the contractor because they are -- they're way beyond their deadline. >> commissioner veronese: yeah. they're almost over a year beyond their deadline, and i understand, chief, it was your call to let the firefighters move in when they're done, and that's the right cause because

otherwise, it wouldn't get done. but if there's anything we can do as a commission, let us know. i also want to stay on top of that liquidated damages number. i'll ask the city attorney to see if we can claw back some of that money to the department because we should be the beneficiaries of that money. and then, of course, the same is true for station five, chief, there's no date there, either? >> commissioner hayes-white: correct. they will be completed before my retirement, but hopefully well before my retirement. >> commissioner veronese: yeah, i would hope so, too, chief. i don't -- don't let d.p.w. know that. we don't want to let them know they've got another six or something -- seven months. >> commissioner hayes-white: yeah. >> commissioner veronese: chief, in regards to 11 and 12,

where you've got those numbers, it looks likes you're ranking for the top 20 frequent callers. and it looks like in almost most of those instances, you're seeing a reduction in calls to 911, which is great, which means that this unit is working and it is being effective. when we go to the second page there, it's -- where you talk about the connections and the referrals, that 100 of these are shelters, sobering centers, detox centers, psychiatric services. so every single one of those, which a majority, if i'm counting right, is 70% of those sobering, treatment, psychiatric. why isn't the department of health dealing with it? it seems like these are all -- it's like we're dealing with

these people on the streets. the department of health should be dealing with them, the problems of e.m.s. six. >> i've been to the homeless shelters and navigation centers. as an employee of the -- d.p.h. is doing what they can with the funding that they have. i think that there needs to be a 24-7 facility with all of these in one place in my opinion, and there needs to be 24-7 personnel there to handle it. the thing is, as you see in the paper, the mayor's looking to get more beds. there's not enough beds. and as you say, more money is coming forward, prop c, but that money might be held up for a while, but the supervisors are also doing their due diligence, and they're checking nonprofits are well. they're checking which nonprofits are working and which aren't, and which are working together.

it's a huge problem but there's a lot of people tackling it from different angles and it just needs to be better coordinated. >> commissioner veronese: but chief, i think you're being generous. they've got a budget of 3 billion, and we have a budget of 400 million. why aren't we giving the department those names of people so they can deal with those people before they start calling 911. >> at some of these locations, there are e.m.s. employees, and they do work with the department of public health. just like i stated earlier, i believe there needs to be a facility that is available 24-7. i think people get lost in the shuffle, and there's not enough accountability with some of the people that we're dealing with. and also, there's civil liberties, as well. we can't just force people into some of these places, hence the number where 37 out of 100

chose to go to the facilities. the other people, we can't force them, and that's part of the challenge. >> commissioner veronese: if there is a way we can get the department of health -- i'm not criticizing you because we, by the numbers, are doing a real other good job, but if there's a way we can get the department of health to step up and deal with these people before they become 911 callers -- frequent 911 callers, we've got to be better at that, getting the department of health to be better on that. >> i think on the dispatch end i would like some of the calls that we go out on modified. i think d.o.c., department of communications, when they came in and did a presentation, an advice nurse would help as a call taker's option. some people just need to be talked to and figure out what do we need for this person, as opposed to sending an ambulance

and an engine and an r.c. to a call where they're not needed. i think they're going to go that route, it's just a matter -- again, it's getting budgeted for it. >> commissioner veronese: okay. and then, the sfmta, we had an issue with them on upper market. did we resolve that with them with upper market and access to buildings? >> upper market? i don't know what you're talking about. >> commissioner hayes-white: upper market was resolved, and we have also designated -- captain chas law works under the direction of the fire marshal. since -- chad law works under the direction of the fire marshal. since then, we've had better coordination on projects, but upper market was completed, and i would call it a good compromise, but that project has been completed. >> commissioner veronese: you were satisfied with that project? >> commissioner hayes-white:

yes. >> commissioner veronese: chief, could you pull up that picture of the fire truck -- >> i don't want to mess it up, but i'll do my best. >> commissioner veronese: i just want to emphasize to the commission, if you take a look at that picture, there's two points i want to make about it. >> which picture did you like? >> commissioner veronese: the truck on market street with the extended ladder. >> yes, sir. >> commissioner veronese: right. so if the commissioners could take a look at that particular -- the truck on the left there, you've got those high-powered wires right above, correct? those are muni lines, and then, you've got a muni bus stop in the middle of the road there. if there had been any less lanes in that road, that truck would not have been able to access the top of that roof. this picture alone emphasized the importance of a really good

relationship between san francisco fire department and sfmta because lives -- lives can be lost if we don't have access. and i -- in my opinion, sfmta is one of the most crucial other departments in this city that a good relationship with them is -- an understanding -- >> since you brought this up, one thing i'd like to mention, since you're pressed for time. they put the parking spaces away from the curb, and so the bikes can go along the curb, and there were supposed to be white zones were just passenger zones. but if you drive down turk street, and there's other streets, as well, where they've done this, everybody is working, and they're not just loading and unloading. they're parking in these designated white zones. so where we told m.t.a. we're going to have a problem aerialing these buildings, their answer was, these people won't be there.

well, they're there. thank you for bringing up the picture. >> commissioner veronese: we have a liaison, chief, is that correct? we have a liaison that we can work through these issues with? >> commissioner hayes-white: correct. chad law. he works with the fire department, and he represents all of our concerns and commissioners. >> commissioner veronese: okay. thank you very much. >> president cleaveland: thank you. commissioner nakajo? >> commissioner nakajo: i have a couple of comments, and then the rest are for chief hayes-white. i'm going to need captain molloy up here. in the suppression on the ambulance category, the third line is general order issued to solicit interests potential class begins late december

2018. suppression members will work in overtime capacity only. could you give this commission clarification. are we talking about suppression members on ambulances because of shortages, etc.? >> not necessarily shortages. staffing wise, we have h.s.a.s and vacations. we only have certain days in a members schedule that we can overtime them. we needed to staff places that were staffless that we could staff those ambulances. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. if these suppression members can take, are they h-3s or suppression members? is there additional training that they have to take? >> i saw some h-3s that might work a paramedic shift, but for

the most part, these were e.m.e.m e.m.t.s, entry level one. >> yes. so we have h-3s and e.m.t.s that come down and work a shift on the ambulance. >> commissioner nakajo: is there a new practice or common practice? >> it's happened before, but this time, we have an unprecedented amount of volunteers? >> commissioner nakajo: can i render a reason of why we have more? >> i would venture to say there's less overtime available in suppression. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. in my interpretation the members are willing to do overtime if the call is there? >> yes. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. thank you very much, chief. to the chief hayes-white, chief hayes-white, thank you for joining us. i know today is a very emotional day for all of us in

terms of the anniversary of mayor lee's passing. i wanted to ask you some questions, but specifically note this comment. in terms of the class coming up, 125, are we complete with invitation to the applicants for class 125, and when would that start date be projected? >> commissioner hayes-white: so the start date for the 125th class is january 28. this should be shown, and i conducted 70 interviews in the last month, and not everyone has been selected for the class at this time. we have invited some folks to proceed onto medicals, but we don't have the final number. we have 14 -- we had -- going into the interviews, we had 14 conditional interviews. those are people that will be in the class certain, and then, we've made some more alternate offers, and we intend to even make a few more. so it's kind of a work in progress at this point. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. so you anticipate at least this

process being completed by a target date, chief? >> commissioner hayes-white: yes. i would say definitely by the end of this month. >> commissioner nakajo: okay. thank you very much, chief. while you were gone, chief, i know you're aware of the associated matter through chief gonzales, i made a request from the leadership previous in china down, doug may, and today, we are able to have an a.f.a. member, john choi come, to make that request. i know you're aware of his bilingual ability, but it comes to the importance of having that bilingual worker at station two to serve that particular community. i understand, you can verify with chief gonzales if you want to, that he's setup for scheduling to report to the airport in january at some point, and so basically, i'd like to reinforce the request of the importance of having a

bilingual member of our department in the chinatown community to serve that community. and again, i'm being asked, and i'd like to give some answer back in terms of that particular process. chief gonzales or chief hayes-white? >> would you like an answer now? >> commissioner hayes-white: i'll take this. because it's a personnel matter, i would rather discuss this offline with you, between you and i, in fairness to the member that i'm talking about. >> commissioner nakajo: i understand that, and in fairness and the delicacy of this, we all know the importance of bilingual, as well. at this point, i'm concluded. thank you very much, chief hayes-white and chief gonzalez. >> thank you very much, v.p. >> president cleaveland: thank

you. i have a quick question on arson. i'd like the fire chief to come up and give us a quick update on the number of arsons in the city and are those numbers going up or down. >> good morning, commissioners. good morning, chief. so arson, i like to refer to it as fire investigation. not all investigations are incendiary, so we have open 56 investigations at this time. we've come a long way. we process or we investigate anywhere from 20 to 30 a month, and so our open number is 56. at a high, we were at 407 at one time, so we've made a drastic improvement on that. that was from about 3.5 years ago. >> president cleaveland: are you fully staffed with investigators? >> we are. i think we have one available position -- we have a ninth position that's available. that's under consideration by the chief, and i'll let the chief respond to that. but i think we have eight, and

we have nine positions, and that is in discussion at this time. >> president cleaveland: so when you find out that it's an incendiary investigation, you pass that information onto the district attorney's office, i assume. >> so if we have a suspect, of course. yes, we work closely -- our task force includes a district attorney, andrew clark, and the p.d., and that is part of our process, yes. >> president cleaveland: thank you. what do you think is your biggest challenge as the fire marshal right now in this city? >> bigger challenge? >> work with the deputy chief of operations, probably. >> president cleaveland: well, that's probably true, but you don't do his day-to-day job. >> the biggest challenge, everything changes, but it's possibly the affordable housing that we're trying to achieve. the target numbers that we're

trying to achieve throughout the city, and that is a problem. they're all priorities, and we acknowledge that. the thing we -- the challenge we have, when you have so many priorities, then nothing becomes a priority. you only have so many resources, so you have to be strategic on how you place your resources and how you address it. and we've been doing that, and i have to say we've been successf successful to this point. our a.d.u. numbers are on the rise. i think we reviewed 80 a.d.u. applications last month, but those are the challenge, affordable housing programs, and staffing those are a priority without sacrificing other departments in the -- >> president cleaveland: so you meet with d.b.i. >> yes.

we meet with d.b.i. every week monday, tuesday, and wednesday just to address a.d.u.s. >> president cleaveland: thank you very much. i also had a question for chief molloy. we're switching from morphine to fentanyl, but you hear about fentanyl killing people all across the country. it's a dangerous drugs. how does it match with morphine in terms of it being a dangerous drug? >> well, they're both opioids, which is the problem. what we give them for is pain medication, and the dose we give is considerably less than what people are taking and overdosing on. whenever you give an opioid, you have to continue to monitor the patient and monitor their vital signs to make sure everything stays stable. that said, we aren't giving them the large doses. we are regulated by the dose we

give them just to take the pain away or make them comfortable. >> president cleaveland: is there training that's being given to our paramedics that are going to be dosing fentanyl? >> absolutely. the dose that we give is different from the problematic issues that are happening in the rest of the country. >> president cleaveland: so we're not going to need armed guards for our e.m.s. trucks to protect the fentanyl supplies? >> no. we keep our fentanyl supplies on our apparatus. >> president cleaveland: thank you for that explanation. thank you, chief gonzales, for your report. very exhaustive, as usually. >> thank you. >> president cleaveland: thank you. madam secretary, would you call the next item. >> clerk: item six, cancer presentation foundation. an update on the cancer

presentation foundation recent update and studies conducted. >> president cleaveland: good morning, tony. >> good morning, president, commissioners, and chief. i've got an outline that i can give you that covers what we've been doing the last 12 years. i also have a presentation that i'm going to be giving later today, so whichever way -- >> president cleaveland: given the time, what kind of -- can you make the presentation in, like, 15, 20 minutes? >> yes. >> president cleaveland: then fast forward. >> i'm not a techie. is there a way that i can put a thumb drive in this and make it work? >> president cleaveland: we appreciate you being here.

[inaudible] >> okay. so basically, a little bit about myself. spent the vast majority of my career at station one first as

a lieutenant at rescue one and then as a captain at rescue one. in 2001, i was diagnosed with cancer that basically ended my career. during treatment and recovery, another firefighter came down with transitional cell carcinoma, and a third, and finally a fourth and a fifth. and this all happened over five years. my urologist said there was a problem that definitely needed to be looked at. there was no solution in this problem, there was nothing in place. we had absolutely no idea of what was going on in our profession at this time, although we knew we had a major problem with elevated rates of center throughout every major metropolitan city in the united states. i approached the administration, chief hayes-white as well as local 798 with the idea of putting a nonprofit together dedicated to

detecting cancer among retired firefighters, and that has been in existence now since 2006. the first thing we did was we conducted a basic survey. we handed and sent out a which ear to active and retired firefighters to see what kind of statistics we could come up with at that time, and we had approximately 780 retired firefighters respond. out of that, we had 237 active cancer cases amongst them and approximately half the force of the department at time responded, with 33, those were not active cases, those were 33 cases that were in remission, but the firefighters were still on active duty. the maybe problem we had in this type of survey was we had absolutely no clue of how many retired firefighters who already succumbed to this

insidious disease. there was no history whatsoever as far as the retired firefighters from san francisco and their loss of life due to this disease. so we decided to -- when the foundation was started, the fire department gave us $100,000 to get us started. this put us in approximate place to fund our -- us in place to fund our first urology. we did that in partnership with ucsf, marshall stoler, and dr. kirsten green. it was a voluntarily type of screening, and we had just a little over 1,000 both active and retired firefighters take part in this screening. we looked for a specific

protein in the urine called np-22. we picked up three cases of cancer in the screening of three people they did not know they had cancer at the time of the screening, two retire fi t fighters, and one active. one had the same cancer that i had normally found in 1 in 100,000 people. tony a he and i worked in the same fire house together. so that shows you the problem that we were faced with. the -- dr. kirsten green presented our findings at the american urological meeting in

2007 and shows the urologists that people in our profession were fighting that. phys physiologically, what happens is there's genetic mutations that happens in the tissue in the bladder that cause these tumors to form. there is a good possibility that this type of cancer can happen. since we've given these -- the nmp-22 tests, we have identified to this point right now, 12 firefighters both active and retired, with active cancers of the genital and

reproductive system. we were under the impression in the fire service that flame retardant chemicals benefited people in their homes, gave them an opportunity to escape before the fire became a conflagration. basically, the industry had sold the fire profession a bill of goods that was causing and possibly could be causing cancer in firefighters. when firefighters fight these

fires with many different items with these chemicals in their homes, these biochemicals accumulate in the fat tissue of firefighters, they do not go away. knowing this information, we became sort of, if you want to call it, accidental activists. we started talking before the state legislative committees, trying to work at the root of the problem to help eliminate some of these chemicals, and over the years, it's actually worked out fairly well, to the point where governor jerry brown signed into legislation an act that was overhauling technical bulletin 117 that was put in place to put these chemicals in our furniture to begin with. people now have the option of buying toxic free furniture, and this is not going to disappear overnight. these pieces of furnitures that are in our homes and stuff, people are not going to throw out the window and throwaway and spend another 2 or $3,000,

so this wat is going to be an ongoing problem for the profession for many years to come. i was invited to give a -- a speech at a one-day symposium at u.c. berkeley about the negative effects of these chemicals. in the audience that day sat two film producers, kirby walker and james redford, the son of robert redford. at the end of the day, i was approached by them and asked if i would be interested in being interviewed to talk about these flame retardant chemicals and their toxicity levels, and how they're not doing any good. i said i would, and about six months later, they contacted me, and the film began to form. [inaudible] >> while this was all occurring, the chicago tribune was also doing an in depth

investigative study and report on the chemical industry and how they had fabricated an organization called citizens for fire safety, how they actually deceived the general population as well as fire chiefs throughout the united states in order to keep this $5 billion industry in business by -- by continually using flame retardant chemicals. and what happened was it did bring change. it exposed them, and i actually was then invited to speak before a congressional committee in washington d.c. that dealt with the overhaul of the taxic substances control act, an act that has been in place since the 1970's. the downside of this act is it gives the chemical industry the ability to continue producing the chemicals without proof that they are safe in the general population. president obama signed legislation that overhauled

that act, but it's sort of ham strung at this point. the e.p.a. can only look at approximately ten chemicals per year, and they look at the most toxic chemicals per year. when you're looking at 10 chemicals per year, and you have a lack bog of approximately 80,000, this is something that's going to take a long, long time. 2010, our department was contacted, asking if we wanted to be involved in the largest study in the nation concerning the deaths of firefighters. epidemiologists sat down with

us. 2014, the study was published -- the study was published with the results that showed we had elevated rates of oral cancers, and this is plural, oral cancers, cancers of the genito-reproductive system. and we have six times the rate of breast center in our 40 to 50-year-old women firefighters. they made the direct correlation by following a firefighter throughout their career, and this is why the study took four years. they followed a firefighter that contracted cancer throughout their career and found there was a direct correlation between the numbers of fires the firefighter fought and that rate of cancer.

so finding out that these flame retardant chemicals were a problem in our profession, we decided to do another study, and that was to have volunteers after two working fires in the city give their blood, and we had volunteers that did that. the blood was analyzed and showed that these polybromenated polyethers were 60% higher than the general populationment so we had prove right there that we are having a major problem with these types of exposureexposures.

we met with dr. stoler and ucsf and stoler labs and says is there any study that we can possibly fund to negate some of the negative aspects of these chemicals, and what we did was away funded a study that took a little over a year to do to see if we could find any chemicals that neutralized these toxins at the cellular level. what they did find out was that there was one particular compound, an antioxidant that would be used to neutralize the chemical at the cellular level.

that would not only help our profession, but it would help other -- other people in the general populations that are exposed to various chemicals on their job. we've had -- we did start the breast cancer study and that is a collaboration of many organizations, u.b. berkeley, ucsf, as well as the silent springs institute. they have gotten the first phase of the study back, that showed they had higher levels of pfass in their blood, very similar to what the males had in their blood that happened in l.a. county a few years ago. the second part of this report back, i believe, is going to be released very soon, and i have not seen that information. and over the last couple years, the camp fire being the last one, and we are extremely

concerned about what is happening now with these megafires, these fires that aren come passing the urban interface, and the exposures that the firefighters are getting. as anybody can see on their television, they were under light weight equipment with a bandanna or respirator over their face, and they are in the tenderloin or a walk up where they are in the interior of the building, and this time, they're there, and these situations they're there with no protection basically whatsoever. at the camp fire, approximately seven or eight days in the fire, we started to get text messages from some of the san francisco firefighters extremely concerned about the level of exposures that they were having. these are firefighters that were there from the first day,

and we were in no position to send a group of plebotomists up there, but a group from san mateo did a little bit of behind-the-scenes work, but a center in chico opens theed th doors to let the firefighters go there and have their blood drawn. it's basically to show we have a problem with the way these fires are being fought, and the necessity for these firefighters to be better protected in these situations, so that's an overview of about the last 12 years. so i'm open to any questions that you might have. >> president cleaveland: thank you very much. is there any public comment on

mr. stefani's report. please come forward. >> thank you, commissioners. firefighter adam wood. i just want to inform you of a couple of department specific developments. the long-term study involving san francisco, chicago and philadelphia that tony described was extended through the renewal of the zogrota act in new york. the organizers of the original study are going back to the cities and trying to update the medical information of the people who originally participated in the study and once that's completed, begin a recruitment of people for an ongoing study. i believe chief nicholson and chief sotto are the department's points of contact for that outreach, so that's happening currently. also, we just learned that, a representative from niosh is going to be in town next month

and wanted to coordinate the participation of that study and our participation in the national firefighter cancer registry which was signed into law this year. so we'll be coordinating with the administration to make sure that the representative meets with the appropriate people. >> president cleaveland: thank you very much. any other public comment? welcome back, mr. choi. >> hey, commissioners, john choi. i've had the pleasure of working with tony stefani when he was a captain on rescue one, on the sea watch. i cannot stress how important the cancer foundation is. we've always supported, at station one, the cancer foundation, because we've had members, retired members, pass away from cancer, most

knowsablely, dan armenta -- most notably, dan armenta. this past year, i was diagnosed with cancer, and i had surgery to remove the cancer early may. took two months off and came back to work, rescue one. i can't stress enough how important our foundation is and how proud we are of our foundation. they are at the forefront, fighting for our lives, basically. it's really an interesting thing to think about that you spend a third of your life trying to save other people's lives, and when it comes down to your life, you know, who do you turn to? and the most important thing that we have in the fire department is each other, and for that, i'm so thankful for our foundation, and i can't stress enough how important it

is that they receive the support of the commission, of the mayor, of the chief, and thank you very much. >> president cleaveland: thank you. any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner veronese? >> commissioner veronese: thank you, mr. stefani, and thank you for coming here and talking to the commission, and mr. choi, thank you for talking to us. cancer prevention is very important to me. my father died from cancer at 49 years old, so this is something it's been a very important issue to me. as a commissioner, when i first came to my commission, my only mandate to myself -- my only personal mandate was i leave this department in a better place than i found it. in that way, i serve this department and i serve the people of this city because if i serve you guys, i make this city safer.

and this is a really big deal. i mean, other than ptsd, which everybody knows that mental health has been an important issue for me, as well. this is a really big deal, and so i appreciate you coming to us and talking to us, but what i really want to know is how are we doing as a department? when i hear that you guys went and started your own foundation in 2006, i think it was, it tells me that maybe the department -- or the city, rather, wasn't doing a good enough job. now i know working for the city -- and i know working for the city because i worked for the d.a.'s office in the past. as a city employee, we like to do cookie-cutter solutions, but our department is very different. it's different in the form of mental health. we see things that other department don't see, and cancer, as well, as you've proven with your demonstration. so the fact that we have -- that you had to go out and

create this foundation tells me maybe as a city that maybe as a city we're not doing good enough in the fire department. we have full-time doctors here that work for us, and so my question is how are we doing as a department? and this is not a criticism of the chief because i know that she's a huge fan, and this pronunciation would probably have not even happened without the efforts of this chief, but can we be doing a better job in the foundation's opinion, and are there things that the department could be doing using our resources that you wouldn't have to go out and find private money to do? i mean, i know that -- i don't know if you know this, but we put in our last budget a -- an item to hire a full-time grant writer, and this is -- i know there's money out there. there's definitely federal money out there to study this

stuff after 9-11. there was a lot of money that was dumped into -- invested into these important issues, cancer-related issues around fires and natural disasters, so is there something -- i would hope once we have that grant writer, where your foundation would work with that grant writer to utilize the pool of this department to pull in federal and state funds to do better at this job? so i guess the question's open to you, how are we doing as a department and what could we be doing better? and what could we be doing better question is a longer question that requires some thought and some time, i hope that you could put together a letter to the commission and to the chief to let us know what we could be doing better. >> absolutely, yes. do you want me to address that? >> commissioner veronese: yeah, the first question, how are we doing? >> to circle to the point where you said that was there a

concern that the city was not doing anything, that the department was not doing anything with these elevated rates of cancer. >> commissioner veronese: okay. i don't want to say anything because i don't want to be critical of it, but are we doing enough? >> yes. in 2006, the city had not adopted the presumptive cancer law that we had in place. [please stand by]

>> we wanted to immediately fund an active firefighter where they would not pay for it and offered firefighter insurance would not pay for it. we fund up to $3,000 and that usually takes care of genomic testing, and gives the firefighter the opportunity to draw upon immunotherapies that are directly related and

targeted to the type of cancer the individual has, and save them the one-size-fits-all chemotherapy that is continually used for various forms of cancer through the studies that we have had, it has opened the eyes of the profession to the point where cultural changes are now coming into play. firefighters now realize that probably one of the most dangerous times during this is during the overhaul process when all these chemicals put off gas and there are a lot of chemicals , and if you are to ask a chemist if these chemicals synergistically work and to become a more toxic when they are combined the way they are, they are not able to answer the question. is extremely important that firefighters protect themselves during the overhaul process. i know some chiefs in san francisco have thought