After an emotional, two-hour hearing, legislation that’s been in the works for 16 years to recognize job-related cancer risk for firefighters in Idaho’s worker’s compensation laws has won the endorsement of the House Commerce Committee. “It obviously has support,” said committee Chairman Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls. “I think it’ll have broad support on the floor.”

The bill already has passed the Senate twice in a broader form; this year’s bill has “more sideboards,” Hartgen said, including a five-year sunset clause to ensure that lawmakers examine it in five years to see how it’s working. Today’s hearing included testimony from medical doctors and scientists, a firefighter who contracted esophageal cancer and shared his personal story, and more.

The bill, HB 554, 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 allows that presumption to be overcome by “substantial evidence to the contrary.”

Legislation to recognize cancer as an occupational hazard for firefighters has been adopted in 39 states and all but one Canadian province; it passed the Idaho Senate in 2012 and 2014. Rob Shoplock, executive vice president of the Professional Firefighters of Idaho and a firefighter from Eagle, said his organization has worked with the Workers Compensation Advisory Board at the Industrial Commission, the state epidemiologist, national experts, lawmakers, and an array of stakeholders. “The draft we have before you is one that I think we can all feel proud of,” he said. “We feel like we’ve identified a good list of cancers that are high risk for firefighters.”

Without a presumption in the law, 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.

Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, sponsor of this year’s bill, said, “These are the women and men who rush into danger while the rest of us run away. They take risks to preserve life and those risks have consequences. Whether that risk is immediate, like falling through a floor or a roof as some do, or whether it takes years to develop cancer, there are consequences. … This is an excellent piece of legislation that has been vetted, as we’ve heard, for many years.”

Committee members were profoundly moved by the testimony. “This is a start - this gets us going down a road that we probably should’ve been going down before,” said Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home. “I think it’s time we started.”

Rep. Dan Rudolph, D-Lewiston, told the committee, “You all know that I teach science. And one of the first things that I teach my students to be a good scientist is you have to be skeptical. ... You have to question.” Rudolph said lawmakers now have “very, very solid” data “that shows a very profound correlation between firefighters and what they do for us, and coming down with specific kinds of cancer.” He said, “There is correlation and causation. And for that reason, I think we’ve got a new situation here where we should pass this bill.”

There was just one “no” vote, from Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian. The bill now moves to the full House.