On December 7, 2016, the Ohio Legislature passed Senate Bill 27, and Governor John Kasich signed it into law on January 4, 2017. Senate Bill 27 states that a firefighter who is disabled as a result of cancer is presumed to have incurred the cancer while performing official duties as a firefighter, with regard to workers’ compensation and the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund. Therefore, the Bill creates a presumption for firefighters diagnosed with cancer under certain circumstances, instead of forcing them to prove that the cancer was caused by their work.
The Bill provides that a firefighter, who has been assigned to at least six years of hazardous duty as a member of a fire department, is covered if the firefighter was exposed to certain agents deemed to cause cancer or probably cause cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
A qualifying firefighter who has developed cancer creates a rebuttable presumption that the cancer was incurred while performing his or her official duties as a firefighter. However, an employer can rebut this presumption by providing evidence that: 1. the cancer was incurred before the firefighter was a member of the fire department 2. the firefighter’s exposure, outside of the scope of his/her official duties, to cigarettes, tobacco products, or other conditions presenting an extremely high risk for the development of the cancer alleged, was probably a significant factor in the cause of progression of the cancer 3. the firefighter wasn’t exposed to an agent classified by the IARC as a Group 1 or 2A carcinogen (agents deemed to cause or probably cause cancer), 4. the firefighter is seventy years of age or older.
Further, the presumption doesn’t apply if it has been more than 20 years since a firefighter was last assigned to hazardous duty. Ohio makes it 34 states with some type of cancer presumption workers’ compensation coverage for firefighters. While the exact number of claims such laws lead to can be hard to determine, the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania alone saw its number of claims rise from 0 to 38 in the first year of similar legislation, according to a Pennsylvania state legislator. The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation estimated that the bill will cost $75,345,000 annually.
FHKAD routinely advises and defends employers regarding Ohio workers’ compensation and employment matters. Please contact FHKAD attorney David Riepenhoff at driepenhoff@fishelhass.com with any questions about this law or any workers’ compensation matter.