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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Gabrielle
A. Prutisto |
State Rep. Thomas
Caltagirone |
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Caltagirone pushes workers’ comp coverage for firefighters who develop cancer
HARRISBURG, July 6 – State Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks, is introducing legislation that would classify cancer as an occupational disease of firefighters.
The classification would make firefighters who develop cancer eligible for workers’ compensation.
“Firefighters risk their lives daily to save ours and in the process routinely breathe in smoke, fumes and gasses that make them more susceptible to many forms of cancer,” Caltagirone said. “Because of this, it is only right to consider these cancers an occupational hazard of firefighters, and to make workers’ compensation available to them, just as state law does for other workers in the case of job-acquired illnesses.”
Under current law, firefighters who contract cancer that they believe is related to their duties must prove that to access workers’ compensation, a process that can take years and involve substantial costs. Under the bill, firefighters who develop cancer would automatically be eligible for workers’ compensation unless their employer could prove the cancer was not related to their job.
"The goal is to make sure that firefighters who contract cancer on the job don’t have to spend years fighting the workers’ compensation bureaucracy at the same time they are trying to fight their cancer,” Caltagirone said. “We want to make sure they and their families are provided for.”
The legislation would apply to firefighters who have spent four years or more on the job, and would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1989.
Anyone with questions about the legislation may contact Caltagirone’s Harrisburg office at 717-787-3525.
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