NEWS

Firefighters' group urges cancer coverage for volunteers

Jordan Fenster
jfenster@lohud.com

Cancer coverage for volunteer firefighters is this year's legislative focus for the state's firefighter’s association, as was outlined during a meeting Saturday.

The Firefighters' Association of New York met Saturday, March 4 in Montrose to discuss the organization's legislative agenda. The focus this year will be cancer coverage for volunteer firefighters.

“We may have volunteered to fight fire, but we did not volunteer to get cancer,” Westchester County Volunteer Firemen’s Association President Robert Outhouse said in a release.

The Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) contends that modern fires are more toxic than fires in previous eras, an assertion supported by a 2002 report from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, published by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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“During the past 50 years, synthetic polymers have been introduced in buildings in very large quantities,” that report says. “Many contain nitrogen or halogens, resulting in the release of hydrogen cyanide and inorganic acids in fire smoke as additional toxic threats.”

The result, according to FASNY, is increased risk of cancer: Firefighters are 102 percent more likely than the general population to develop testicular cancer, 62 percent more likely to develop esophageal cancer and 26 percent more likely to develop breast cancer.

Health insurance coverage for salaried firefighters in New York State does include cancer treatment, but volunteer firefighters are not similarly covered, which FASNY called an inequity.

“Thirty-five other states in the nation have already passed presumptive cancer legislation, and New York is not one of them,” FASNY President Ken Pienkowski said in the release.

A bill to provide that coverage was unanimously passed by the state senate in January — the Assembly version has not yet come to the floor for a vote.

“We are grateful to the State Senate for acting in the best interests of New York’s volunteers, and hope that the Assembly will swiftly follow suit,” Outhouse said.

A contingent of local firefighters, FASNY representatives and several state legislators met Saturday in Montrose for the group’s annual legislative conference.

“Presumptive cancer coverage is the number-one issue for the volunteer fire service,” Pienkowski said.