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VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board has been asked to examine a request that firefighters who develop certain cancers be presumed to have contracted them through work, said Labour Minister Graham Bruce.
In a meeting with the B.C. Professional Firefighters' Assocation Thursday, Bruce and Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota heard that firefighters are up to three times more likely to develop cancers of the brain, bladder and kidney, as well as leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, from breathing in toxic fumes.
“Clearly the firefighters strongly believe their concerns about work-related cancers should be recognized by the WCB,” said Bruce, “and I believe they should have an opportunity to meet with the WCB.”
Bruce said he has asked the WCB to consider the firefighters’ request. The WCB is already looking into this matter, the minister added, and has advised him it will consult with firefighters as part of its process.
The Workers Compensation Act lists a number of occupational diseases where there is a presumption that the disease was caused by work unless proved otherwise. Currently, firefighters who develop cancers must make their case on an individual basis in order to get workers’ compensation.
Bruce noted the WCB had been revamped with a new board of directors and a new mandate, “and we have to give the process a chance to work. If the WCB determines that the science supports a causal relationship between firefighting and these cancers, then we will make the appropriate changes.”
Sahota said Manitoba, Alberta, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan have either enacted or are in the process of enacting legislation providing firefighters with the benefit of a presumption for specific types of cancers including brain, bladder, kidney, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia and colon.
The effect of such legislation is that a firefighter who develops the particular cancer will be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits without having to prove a link between exposures at work and the cancer. -30-
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