Because firefighters are nearly five times more likely to contract cancer, an Arkansas fire department is working with service dogs to detect cancer among its members.
The North Little Rock Fire Department and researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are training canines to sniff out thyroid cancer, KTHV-TV reports. To do so, the dogs smell blood and urine samples from the firefighters.
“We want to do anything we can to find out early,” Capt. Billy Jones told KTHV. “If we can help the 163 guys on this job and others statewide or nationally, we are all in.”
So far, 84 percent of the department has donated samples, and the dogs will soon be training with those samples, according to the TV station.
