It took almost three years to win presumptive employees’ compensation protection for breast, cervical, and different cancers that firefighters who work for federal companies could develop due to hazardous exposures on the job.
Now, simply weeks after the Labor Division added protection for these sicknesses, firefighters fear the positive factors could also be in jeopardy after the Trump administration deleted details about the enlargement of protection for cancers that largely have an effect on ladies and transgender firefighters from a federal webpage and ducked questions on whether or not it can uphold the coverage change made within the waning days of the Biden administration.
“It’s actually necessary to proceed to concentrate on making certain that those that dedicate their lives to defending the general public and communities proceed to obtain protection via the particular claims unit,” mentioned Pete Dutchick, a federal firefighter and volunteer with the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.
The Labor Division’s particular claims unit, established in 2022, processes all federal firefighter claims and supplies a streamlined path for these with lined situations. Wildland firefighters and advocacy teams representing them celebrated that 12 months when federal officers moved to expedite employees’ compensation protection of cancers tied to their jobs. It was recognition that the hazards of battling wildfires lengthen lengthy after a blaze is extinguished.
The listing of cancers federal officers tagged for streamlined claims processes via the Labor Division’s Workplace of Employees’ Compensation Applications included esophageal, colorectal, prostate, testicular, kidney, bladder, mind, lung, thyroid, a number of myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, mesothelioma, and melanoma.
However that preliminary jubilation soured when it grew to become clear that breast, ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers have been excluded, making a protection hole for greater than 2,700 individuals, or about 16% of the greater than 17,000 federal wildland firefighters working for the Forest Service and the Inside Division. These are firefighters who’re dispatched to federal lands, like in nationwide forests and nationwide parks, and typically help county and state crews, as they did when fires swept into Los Angeles in January.
“At first look, we have been ecstatic,” Dutchick mentioned. “After which we’re like, ‘Effectively, the place are the feminine cancers?’”
Dutchick, who has an 8-year-old daughter, was upset. “I actually need her to have equal protections with regards to well being if she chooses to get right into a subject of public service,” he mentioned.
Then this 12 months, because the Biden administration wound towards a detailed, federal officers addressed the exclusion, including the cancers to the listing in a last-minute change earlier than Donald Trump took workplace.
“This coverage change acknowledges the distinctive occupational hazards confronted by ladies firefighters and ensures they obtain the care and help they deserve,” Christopher Godfrey, the now-former director of the employees’ compensation workplace, mentioned in a Jan. 6 assertion on the Labor Division’s web site.
In a press release to KFF Well being Information 4 days later, Godfrey mentioned the coverage change resulted in fast motion for firefighters with new claims.
However within the early days of the Trump administration, the January press launch saying the most cancers protection enlargement was deleted from the Labor Division web site. When requested whether or not claims have been nonetheless being processed for the 4 lately added cancers, a spokesperson for the employees’ compensation workplace, Frances Alonzo, informed KFF Well being Information, “We don’t have any further updates concerning your inquiry.”
Formalizing the coverage change via rulemaking will take months and help from Congress.
Kaleena Lynde is amongst a era of ladies firefighters who developed most cancers earlier than streamlined protection for employees’ compensation claims existed. In 2006, Lynde, then 22, was recognized with small cell ovarian most cancers throughout her third hearth season on the Shasta Lake Hotshots, an elite crew of firefighters in Northern California. Docs eliminated a 5.4-pound tumor nearly instantly that 12 months. She’s now cancer-free, however solely after a number of surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and a further cervical most cancers analysis three years later. Lynde has since gone on to work varied jobs for the Forest Service, together with 16 years at Eldorado Nationwide Forest doing hearth investigation, hearth prevention, and dispatch middle jobs. She now coordinates wildfire apprenticeships for the company’s Pacific Southwest area.
A buddy lately despatched her a hyperlink to the Nationwide Firefighter Registry for Most cancers, a database monitoring the prevalence of ailments amongst all firefighters, each structural and wildland. It made Lynde marvel — may her cancers be linked to her work on the hearth line?
“I simply thought I had dangerous luck,” Lynde mentioned.
Searching for to repair the omission, greater than 15 wildland firefighter advocacy teams, representing Hotshot crews, smokejumpers, and others, signed a September letter to Julie Su, the performing labor secretary on the time. They identified that different nations, together with Australia, already included presumptive protection for cervical, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancers.
The Labor Division applied coverage adjustments that eased the necessities for overlaying wildland firefighters’ cancer-related employees’ compensation claims in April 2022 via a Federal Staff’ Compensation Act bulletin. The principles have been codified in December 2022 when President Joe Biden signed the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act.
To qualify, firefighters will need to have labored for at the least 5 years and be recognized inside 10 years of their final publicity. These with unlisted cancers may nonetheless file claims via a particular unit however wouldn’t obtain the identical streamlined adjudication for compensation. By September 2024, the employees’ compensation workplace had acquired 91 claims for qualifying cancers and coronary heart and lung situations. Of these, 89 have been adjudicated via the particular claims course of and 84, or 94%, have been accepted. Godfrey mentioned that previous to the laws, solely 29% of occupational illness claims for firefighters have been accepted.
Rachel Granberg, a wildland firefighter in Washington state, mentioned streamlined processing and reimbursements are necessary. “It actually offers individuals extra bandwidth to fret about how they’re going to handle their life after a most cancers analysis, reasonably than simply preventing for fundamental well being care.”
Too usually firefighters find yourself crowdsourcing for monetary help after most cancers diagnoses, she mentioned.
George Broyles, retired firefighter and Forest Service researcher, mentioned that well being dangers are too usually seen as a part of the job. “Hazard pay just isn’t going to cease most cancers,” he mentioned. Broyles desires federal firefighting companies to be sincere about most cancers dangers when hiring younger employees after which educate them on methods to guard themselves.
The latest coverage change meant claims for federal wildland firefighters with ovarian, breast, or uterine most cancers have been instantly directed to the particular claims unit and expedited processing.
The Labor Division’s resolution to alter course and increase presumptive protection to feminine reproductive cancers was sudden. In December, the company launched a press release to KFF Well being Information saying such a change was unwarranted.
Three weeks later — with out pointing to any new revealed analysis — the company modified course, citing further session with the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being and with Steven Moffatt, a health care provider who makes a speciality of firefighter sicknesses. The company conducts periodic evaluations to think about including new situations to its protection.
The Labor Division’s preliminary exclusion of feminine reproductive cancers illuminated the repercussions of analysis on wildland firefighter well being through which ladies are understudied. One evaluation discovered that solely three out of 20 research evaluated ladies firefighters’ most cancers danger.
However analysis has confirmed for years that firefighters are uncovered to poisonous risks. A examine that adopted Florida firefighters for nearly 20 years within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties discovered that firefighting will increase the general most cancers danger in feminine firefighters. In 2022, the Worldwide Company for Analysis on Most cancers labeled firefighting as a cancer-causing occupation.
Current analysis contributed to the company’s inclusion of feminine reproductive cancers, Godfrey mentioned. In 2023, a examine decided a hyperlink between perfluorononanoic acid, a sort of PFAS, and uterine most cancers. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of chemical substances that a latest examine discovered within the protecting gear worn by wildland firefighters. Extra analysis has additionally linked PFAS publicity to a rise in melanoma. A examine revealed in September recognized 12 chemical substances that firefighters are uncovered to on the job linked to breast most cancers.
However now, it’s unclear whether or not the Trump administration will roll again the brand new protection, leaving some federal firefighters uncertain whether or not exposures on the job will go away them scrambling for care.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working applications at KFF—an impartial supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.
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