By National Volunteer Fire Council
The World Health Organization classifies firefighting as a Group 1 carcinogen, and many studies have shown significant evidence that firefighters have an elevated risk for numerous forms of cancer. Two of the biggest legislative initiatives the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) supports to help combat cancer in the fire service and assist those affected by it are the National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer and the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act.
- Cancer: The Untold Hardships
- Yes, I Got Firefighter Cancer and I Still Love the Fire Service
- Off the Cuff: It Won’t Happen to Me…Right?
The National Firefighter Registry
The NFR was established by a law enacted in 2018 to create a national database that will help researchers to better understand and reduce cancer in firefighters by matching the information provided by participating NFR firefighters with cancer diagnosis information from state cancer registries. This matching process will allow the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the relationship between firefighting and cancer outcomes over time as well as fill research gaps of past studies examining cancer incidence among firefighters.
Since its rollout last year, the NFR is working to sign-up as many firefighters as possible to provide the first comprehensive, national data source in the United States for studying the relationship between firefighting and cancer. All firefighters can do their part by signing up for the NFR, whether career or volunteer, active or retired, diagnosed with cancer or not.
The Firefighter Cancer Registry Reauthorization Act (P.L. 118-147), which was supported by the NVFC and signed into law in December, reauthorized the NFR through 2028 at an increased funding level of $5.5 million per year. While the authorization of this key program is secured for the next few years, there is more you can do to support the NFR by asking Congress to provide additional funding for it and to sign up.
In FY 2024, the NFR is funded at $5.5 million, and the House and Senate have proposed funding the NFR at the same level for FY 25. The NVFC is advocating for $7.344 million in FY 25 funding for the NFR. The additional funding would be spent on marketing and outreach efforts to sign-up communities that have been underrepresented in other firefighter cancer studies like volunteer, minority, and female firefighters. You can support additional funding for the NFR by reaching out to your representative and senators. Please also share with them any personal stories you may have related to firefighter cancer and how you believe the NFR would improve cancer research and reduce incidents of firefighter cancer. You can use this one-pager to assist with your advocacy.
The success of the NFR also strongly depends upon the number of firefighters who enroll in it. It is especially important for volunteer firefighters to participate, as their data is often not captured elsewhere. The more firefighters participate, the more data NIOSH will have to develop informed initiatives to reduce cancer in the fire service. Learn more about the NFR and sign up here.
Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act
The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act would expand access to Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) for the families of first responders, including firefighters, who pass away from cancer caused by carcinogenic exposure during their service. This bill would also extend disability benefits in cases where first responders become permanently and totally disabled due to cancer. Currently, first responders are only POSB eligible for physical injuries sustained in the line-of-duty, or for deaths from duty-related heart attacks, strokes, suicides, mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and 9/11 related illnesses.
This bill was strongly supported by the NVFC and received broad bipartisan support in the previous Congress. The bill had 136 cosponsors (98 Democrats and 38 Republicans) in the House and 37 cosponsors (25 Democrats and 12 Republicans) in the Senate. This bill also unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The NVFC will again strongly support this bill when it is reintroduced in the 119th Congress, which began on January 3. When it is reintroduced, you can help advance this bill by asking your representative and senators to cosponsor it.
State Presumption Laws
Many states have laws establishing a presumption that certain types of cancer contracted by firefighters are the result of duty-related exposure. These laws typically allow the families of firefighters who contract these types of cancer to receive compensation in various forms, including through enhanced retirement/pension benefits, workers compensation, and/or death/disability benefits.
Most of these state laws stipulate various conditions that must be met for the cancer presumption to be valid, including that the firefighter has served for a certain length of time, that the firefighter has refrained from using tobacco products, that the firefighter has had a physical examination upon joining the department, etc. These conditions are intended to protect the state or department (depending on which entity is responsible for paying the benefit) from having to compensate families of firefighters whose cancer was not contracted because of duty-related exposure.
Not all state presumption laws extend coverage to volunteer firefighters. In some cases, state laws explicitly extend coverage only to full-time paid firefighters. In other cases, state laws apply exclusively to benefits that only full-time, paid firefighters receive.
Contact your state firefighters’ association to find out if your state has a presumption law, and if it does not have one or has one that does not include volunteers, what efforts are being undertaken to get one established or revised and how you can help. Find a list of the NVFC’s state member associations at www.nvfc.org/states.
Protect Yourself and Your Crew
In addition to legislative initiatives, you can help protect yourself and your crew from occupational cancer risks by following the best practices described in the Lavender Ribbon Report. The NVFC and the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Volunteer and Combination Officers Section released the Lavender Ribbon Report to provide guidance on 11 specific actions firefighters can take to reduce their exposure risks. Departments should incorporate these into their standard operating procedures to increase the safety of their responders. Download the Lavender Ribbon Report and access additional tools from the NVFC for lowering cancer risks at www.nvfc.org/lrr.
