Senate Bill 27 is scheduled to have its fifth hearing, along with a possible vote in the near future. This Bill addresses firefighters who have cancer. The legislation explicitly states that a member of a fire department under the Police Fire Pension Fund who has been assigned to at least three years of hazardous duty as a member of a fire department and is disabled as the result of certain types of cancer will be presumed to have incurred the cancer while performing the member’s official duties. The statute then lists types of several cancer that may or may not normally be related to fire fighter duties. The proposed legislation further states that the presumption in the statute does not apply if there is competent medical evidence to the contrary of the presumption or if the cancer that resulted in the member’s disability was revealed by the physical examination passed by the member on the entry into the department. This proposed legislation is designed to make it more likely that firefighters will be awarded workers’ compensation benefits if they have these certain types of cancer.
