Bill could help firefighters with cancer claims

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http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/10/15/city/sfire15.htm

Sunday, October 15, 2000

Bill could help firefighters with cancer claims

By Q. Stranahan and Larry King

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

On April 21, 1980, a warehouse filled with 2 million gallons of illegally

stored chemicals burst into flames in , N.J. For 10 hours, more

than 230 firefighters, most without breathing gear, battled through toxic

smoke while exploding barrels rained chemicals on them.

Over the next decade, those exposed to the blaze at Chemical Control Corp.

suffered an unusually high rate of illness, which ranged from respiratory

problems to cancer. More than 30 of the afflicted blamed the chemicals they

encountered on the job. But claims for workers' compensation benefits were

rejected because the firefighters could not prove a connection.

On Monday in Trenton, a committee of the General Assembly will consider a

measure to make workers' comp far more accessible to firefighters who

contend their line-of-duty exposure gave them cancer.

The proposed law, likely to meet resistance from local governments, would

classify cancer as a presumed occupational disease for New Jersey's 6,500

paid firefighters, as well as its 50,000 volunteers.

That means the burden of proof in workers' comp cases would shift: No longer

would firefighters have to establish that their cancer was caused by

something they were exposed to on the job - which, scientifically, is

impossible. Rather, the onus would be on municipal employers to prove that

other factors, such as smoking and heredity, were to blame.

The bill " doesn't mean that [a firefighter] with cancer shows up . . . and

everybody throws money at him, " said Tom Canzanella, president of the

Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey. " It just turns the

tables. "

Assemblywoman Previte (D., Camden) said she introduced the bill after

reading an Inquirer series, " Beyond the Flames, " in the spring. The stories

documented excessive rates of cancer among firefighters and other emergency

workers exposed to a 1978 chemical fire in Chester - similar in magnitude to

the Chemical Control blaze two years later.

Many veterans of the fire at the Wade dump along the Delaware River endured

years-long battles to obtain benefits because Pennsylvania, like New Jersey,

has no cancer provision for firefighters in its workers' comp law. A bill

similar to New Jersey's has sat dormant in burg since early last year.

Twenty states already have such provisions, according to the International

Association of Fire Fighters.

" It's the right thing to do for all the right reasons, " said Assemblyman

F. Geist (R., Gloucester), chairman of the Labor Committee, which

will hold the hearing Monday. He also is among the bill's 26 cosponsors.

If the bill wins committee approval - likely, as three of the five members

have endorsed it - municipalities and their insurers have vowed to fight it.

" We are strongly opposed to the bill because of the [financial] burden that

will be placed on local governments, " said Helen Yeldell, senior legislative

analyst for the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

The league has not projected the cost of expanding firefighters' benefits,

although Yeldell said that at some point an analysis might be performed.

In Michigan, where a similar compensation bill is pending, annual costs have

been estimated at $100,000 to $140,000. Michigan has 5,500 paid and 24,000

volunteer firefighters.

California, with 30,000 paid firefighters and 33,000 volunteers, made cancer

a presumptive illness in 1982. In the first three years that the law was in

effect, there were 45 new cancer disability claims, averaging $14,000 each.

Officials of the California Public Employee Retirement System say the

payments have had little effect on their actuarial costs.

When Wisconsin classified cancer an occupational disease for its 2,625

professional firefighters in 1998, the estimated annual cost was $316,000.

The law has since been amended to exclude heavy smokers.

That amendment " mitigated a tremendous amount of our objections, " said

J. Huck, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities.

Nationwide, 10 percent of firefighters who quit because of disease have

cancer, the International Association of Fire Fighters reports. There are no

national statistics on how many develop cancer over a lifetime.

The Chemical Control fire was one of several major chemical fires in New

Jersey during the last two decades. But even far less spectacular blazes - a

burning car or a smoldering sofa - routinely bring firefighters into contact

with toxic chemicals, and the risk of diseases associated with them.

At least 37 states recognize heart and lung ailments among firefighters as

job-related, linked to heat, smoke and stress. Among them is Pennsylvania,

which has 10,000 professional firefighters and 50,000 volunteers.

New Jersey has limited heart-lung provisions for its volunteers, but nothing

for its paid firefighters. " We've been fighting to have that changed for

years, " Bob Yackel of the state's Professional Firefighters Association

said.

In Pennsylvania, State Rep. Dennis M. O'Brien (R., Phila.) introduced a bill

last year to make cancer a presumptive occupational disease for

firefighters. Despite attracting 38 cosponsors, the bill remains mired in

the Labor Relations Committee. O'Brien did not return several calls to his

office last week.

Pennsylvania legislators - as well as the Ridge administration - have been

loath to tinker with any aspect of the Workers' Compensation Act, labor and

firefighters' advocates say. The law underwent a major overhaul in 1996, and

legislators fear an onslaught of amendments, including some that could lead

to claims for communicable diseases.

Through contaminated blood and other body fluids, firefighters, rescue

personnel and police are often exposed to diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis

and hepatitis - currently a raging controversy between Philadelphia

firefighters and City Hall.

" The [Ridge] administration, and to some degree members of the legislature .

.. . are wary of other issues that may be tacked onto a bill like [the cancer

legislation], " said Brenner, executive director of the Pennsylvania

Fire Services Institute.

Before deciding whether to support the measure, Gov. Ridge wants to see

" data, other than anecdotal, that [cancer] is job-related " for firefighters,

spokesman Tim Reeves said.

Firefighters can help press the cause by keeping better records of their

exposure to chemicals on the job, union officials say.

" If all of a sudden they come up with cancer, they have to say, 'Let me

think of the 500 fires I've been to.' That's impossible, " said Pat Moran of

the State Firefighters Association in California.

That organization has added to its Web site (www.csfa.firedept.net) a

standard reporting form on which members can record details of each fire

call - including the chemicals present.

Computers can change some things - but not attitudes, said Barry Buskey,

president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighter Association.

" Firefighters are lackadaisical, " he said. That " is probably one of our

biggest problems. "

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Q. Stranahan's e-mail address is sstranahan@... © 2000

Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.