It took almost three years to win presumptive staff’ compensation protection for breast, cervical, and different cancers that firefighters who work for federal companies might develop due to hazardous exposures on the job.
Now, simply weeks after the Labor Department added protection for these sicknesses, firefighters fear the positive factors could also be in jeopardy after the Trump administration deleted details about the growth of protection for cancers that principally have an effect on ladies and transgender firefighters from a federal webpage and ducked questions on whether or not it would uphold the coverage change made within the waning days of the Biden administration.
“It’s really important to continue to focus on ensuring that those who devote their lives to protecting the public and communities continue to receive coverage through the special claims unit,” stated Pete Dutchick, a federal firefighter and volunteer with the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.
The Labor Department’s particular claims unit, established in 2022, processes all federal firefighter claims and offers a streamlined path for these with coated circumstances. Wildland firefighters and advocacy teams representing them celebrated that yr when federal officers moved to expedite staff’ compensation protection of cancers tied to their jobs. It was recognition that the hazards of battling wildfires prolong lengthy after a blaze is extinguished.
The record of cancers federal officers tagged for streamlined claims processes by the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs included esophageal, colorectal, prostate, testicular, kidney, bladder, mind, lung, thyroid, a number of myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, mesothelioma, and melanoma.
But that preliminary jubilation soured when it turned clear that breast, ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers had 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 Interior Department. These are firefighters who’re dispatched to federal lands, like in nationwide forests and nationwide parks, and generally assist county and state crews, as they did when fires swept into Los Angeles in January.
“At first glance, we were ecstatic,” Dutchick stated. “And then we’re like, ‘Well, where are the female cancers?’”
Dutchick, who has an 8-year-old daughter, was upset. “I certainly want her to have equal protections when it comes to health if she chooses to get into a field of public service,” he stated.
Then this yr, because the Biden administration wound towards an in depth, federal officers addressed the exclusion, including the cancers to the record in a last-minute change earlier than Donald Trump took workplace.
“This policy change acknowledges the unique occupational hazards faced by women firefighters and ensures they receive the care and support they deserve,” Christopher Godfrey, the now-former director of the employees’ compensation workplace, stated in a Jan. 6 assertion on the Labor Department’s web site.
In a press release to KFF Health News 4 days later, Godfrey stated the coverage change resulted in speedy motion for firefighters with new claims.
But within the early days of the Trump administration, the January press launch asserting the most cancers protection growth was deleted from the Labor Department web site. When requested whether or not claims had been nonetheless being processed for the 4 lately added cancers, a spokesperson for the employees’ compensation workplace, Frances Alonzo, informed KFF Health News, “We do not have any additional updates regarding your inquiry.”
Formalizing the coverage change by rulemaking will take months and help from Congress.
Kaleena Lynde is amongst a technology of ladies firefighters who developed most cancers earlier than streamlined protection for staff’ compensation claims existed. In 2006, Lynde, then 22, was identified with small cell ovarian most cancers throughout her third hearth season on the Shasta Lake Hotshots, an elite crew of firefighters in Northern California. Doctors eliminated a 5.4-pound tumor virtually instantly that yr. She’s now cancer-free, however solely after a number of surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and an extra cervical most cancers prognosis three years later. Lynde has since gone on to work varied jobs for the Forest Service, together with 16 years at Eldorado National Forest doing hearth investigation, hearth prevention, and dispatch heart jobs. She now coordinates wildfire apprenticeships for the company’s Pacific Southwest area.
A pal lately despatched her a hyperlink to the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, a database monitoring the prevalence of illnesses amongst all firefighters, each structural and wildland. It made Lynde surprise — might her cancers be related to her work on the hearth line?
“I just thought I had bad luck,” Lynde stated.
Seeking 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 appearing labor secretary on the time. They identified that different international locations, including Australia, already included presumptive protection for cervical, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancers.
The Labor Department applied policy changes that eased the necessities for masking wildland firefighters’ cancer-related staff’ compensation claims in April 2022 by a Federal Employees’ Compensation Act bulletin. The guidelines had been codified in December 2022 when President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act.
To qualify, firefighters will need to have labored for at the very least 5 years and be identified inside 10 years of their final publicity. Those with unlisted cancers might nonetheless file claims by 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 circumstances. Of these, 89 had been adjudicated by the particular claims course of and 84, or 94%, had been accepted. Godfrey stated that previous to the laws, solely 29% of occupational illness claims for firefighters had been accepted.
Rachel Granberg, a wildland firefighter in Washington state, stated streamlined processing and reimbursements are necessary. “It really gives people more bandwidth to worry about how they’re going to manage their life after a cancer diagnosis, rather than just fighting for basic health care.”
Too usually firefighters find yourself crowdsourcing for monetary help after most cancers diagnoses, she stated.
George Broyles, retired firefighter and Forest Service researcher, stated that well being dangers are too usually seen as a part of the job. “Hazard pay is not going to stop cancer,” he stated. Broyles desires federal firefighting companies to be sincere about most cancers dangers when hiring younger staff after which educate them on methods to guard themselves.
The current coverage change meant claims for federal wildland firefighters with ovarian, breast, or uterine most cancers had been instantly directed to the particular claims unit and expedited processing.
The Labor Department’s resolution to alter course and broaden presumptive protection to feminine reproductive cancers was sudden. In December, the company launched a press release to KFF Health News saying such a change was unwarranted.
Three weeks later — with out pointing to any new printed analysis — the company modified course, citing extra session with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and with Steven Moffatt, a physician who focuses on firefighter sicknesses. The company conducts periodic critiques to contemplate including new circumstances to its protection.
The Labor Department’s preliminary exclusion of feminine reproductive cancers illuminated the repercussions of analysis on wildland firefighter well being through which ladies are understudied. One review found that solely three out of 20 research evaluated ladies firefighters’ most cancers danger.
But analysis has confirmed for years that firefighters are uncovered to poisonous risks. A study that followed Florida firefighters for nearly 20 years within the Eighties and Nineties discovered that firefighting will increase the general most cancers danger in feminine firefighters. In 2022, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified firefighting as a cancer-causing occupation.
Recent analysis contributed to the company’s inclusion of feminine reproductive cancers, Godfrey stated. In 2023, a study determined 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 recent study found within the protecting gear worn by wildland firefighters. Additional research has additionally linked PFAS publicity to a rise in melanoma. A study published in September recognized 12 chemical substances that firefighters are uncovered to on the job linked to breast most cancers.
But now, it’s unclear whether or not the Trump administration will roll again the brand new protection, leaving some federal firefighters not sure whether or not exposures on the job will go away them scrambling for care.
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