By Kylie Mohr, KFF Well being Information
It took practically three years to win presumptive staff’ compensation protection for breast, cervical, and different cancers that firefighters who work for federal businesses might develop due to hazardous exposures on the job.
Now, simply weeks after the Labor Division added protection for these sicknesses, firefighters fear the beneficial properties could also be in jeopardy after the Trump administration deleted details about the growth 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 should 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,” 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 offers a streamlined path for these with lined circumstances. Wildland firefighters and advocacy teams representing them celebrated that 12 months when federal officers moved to expedite staff’ 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 record of cancers federal officers tagged for streamlined claims processes by the Labor Division’s Workplace of Staff’ Compensation Packages 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 had been excluded, making a protection hole for greater than 2,700 folks, 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 glance, we were ecstatic,” Dutchick mentioned. “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 mentioned.
Then this 12 months, because the Biden administration wound towards a detailed, 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, 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 instant motion for firefighters with new claims.
However within the early days of the Trump administration, the January press launch saying the most cancers protection growth was deleted from the Labor Division web site. When requested whether or not claims had been nonetheless being processed for the 4 not too long ago added cancers, a spokesperson for the employees’ compensation workplace, Frances Alonzo, advised KFF Well being Information, “We do not have any additional updates regarding your inquiry.”
Formalizing the coverage change by rulemaking will take months and assist from Congress.
Kaleena Lynde is amongst a era of ladies firefighters who developed most cancers earlier than streamlined protection for staff’ compensation claims existed. In 2006, Lynde, then 22, was recognized with small cell ovarian most cancers throughout her third fireplace season on the Shasta Lake Hotshots, an elite crew of firefighters in Northern California. Medical doctors eliminated a 5.4-pound tumor virtually instantly that 12 months. She’s now cancer-free, however solely after a number of surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and a further 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 Nationwide Forest doing fireplace investigation, fireplace prevention, and dispatch heart jobs. She now coordinates wildfire apprenticeships for the company’s Pacific Southwest area.
A good friend not too long ago despatched her a hyperlink to the Nationwide Firefighter Registry for Most cancers, a database monitoring the prevalence of illnesses amongst all firefighters, each structural and wildland. It made Lynde surprise — might her cancers be linked to her work on the fireplace line?
“I just thought I had bad 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 international locations, 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 masking wildland firefighters’ cancer-related staff’ compensation claims in April 2022 by a Federal Workers’ Compensation Act bulletin. The foundations had been codified in December 2022 when President Joe Biden signed the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act.
To qualify, firefighters will need to have labored for not less than 5 years and be recognized inside 10 years of their final publicity. These 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 mentioned that previous to the laws, solely 29% of occupational illness claims for firefighters had been accepted.
Rachel Granberg, a wildland firefighter in Washington state, mentioned streamlined processing and reimbursements are essential. “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 assist 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 is not going to stop cancer,” he mentioned. Broyles desires federal firefighting businesses 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 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 printed analysis — the company modified course, citing further session with the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being and with Steven Moffatt, a physician who focuses on firefighter sicknesses. The company conducts periodic opinions to contemplate including new circumstances 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 evaluate 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 Nineties discovered that firefighting will increase the general most cancers danger in feminine firefighters. In 2022, the Worldwide Company for Analysis on Most cancers categorized 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 kind of PFAS, and uterine most cancers. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of chemical substances {that a} current examine discovered within the protecting gear worn by wildland firefighters. Further analysis has additionally linked PFAS publicity to a rise in melanoma. A examine printed 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 not sure whether or not exposures on the job will go away them scrambling for care.
©2025 KFF Well being Information. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
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