New Hampshire benefits law links cancer among firefighters with the job
DEPARTMENTS
Dispatches
New Hampshire, a very conservative state, has come up with relatively liberal legislation regarding firefighters and cancer.
This spring, the legislature made “The Granite State” the sixth in the nation to adopt a presumptive cancer benefits plan. The law provides a prima facie presumption that a firefighter’s cancer is a result of his or her job, with municipalities having to prove otherwise if they seek to deny the benefits from the state’s worker’s compensation pool.
What appears to have tempered the usually hard-liner legislators is a strong united effort by several fire service groups in the state. Evidence was also gleaned from an ongoing survey of retired New Hampshire firefighters, as well as several other surveys conducted around the nation concerning the many forms of cancer for which firefighters appear to be at a higher risk than the general population.
According to the International Association of Fire Fighters, California, Rhode Island, Illinois, North Dakota, and Maryland also have presumptive benefits laws.
