Idaho’s firefighters have twice won Senate passage of legislation to recognize cancer as an occupational hazard, when it develops after they’re exposed to known cancer-causing substances while fighting fires. But the bill’s never advanced in the House – until now. Today, House Commerce Chairman Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, praised a new consensus version of the firefighters’ workers comp cancer bill that was introduced on a unanimous vote in his committee this afternoon, and scheduled it for a hearing on Thursday.

Hartgen said his committee held two information hearings on the issue last year, and stakeholders, from firefighters to lawmakers to the state Industrial Commission, have been working together with him and committee Vice-Chair Neil Anderson, R-Blackfoot, on this year’s version. “We wound up with a draft that we all felt was a step forward,” Hartgen said.

The new version of the bill changes worker’s compensation law to presume that certain cancers, within certain time periods, are job-related for firefighters. It includes an exception for any firefighters who smoke or who live with someone who smokes; it includes volunteer firefighters; and it has a five-year “sunset clause” saying the change in law expires in five years. Hartgen said that ensures that lawmakers will take a look at it and see if it’s working and should be extended. It also allows that presumption to be overcome by “substantial evidence to the contrary.”

Shawn Laughlin of the Professional Firefighters of Idaho said 39 states and all but one Canadian province have adopted the presumption for firefighters’ job-related cancers; it’s extremely difficult for firefighters to prove that their jobs led to the cancers, as they develop over long periods of time and could be related to any number of carcinogens.

Hartgen said research by the office of Idaho’s state epidemiologist persuaded him that the change in the law won’t result in a huge increase in costs for Idaho’s local governments and fire districts.