The firefighter’s fight for occupational cancer recognition

Brent Wilson believes his thyroid cancer was caused by exposure to toxins after 30 years as a firefighter and supports steps to get his professional claim officially recognised.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union says Wilson isn’t alone, with at least one firefighter a month coming forward to file a cancer claim.

Wilson, a senior firefighter in Invercargill, first started noticing symptoms after chronic difficulty swallowing and coughing.

In 2021 he was diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma and in the same year his thyroid and a lymph node were removed.

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He began his career as a volunteer firefighter in Ohai in 1990. He first became a professional firefighter in Upper Hutt in 1996 before transferring to the Invercargill Brigade in 2007.

When he first started, he said there was limited knowledge about how cancer-causing firefighting could be.

In the early days, they regularly cleaned up house fires without protective equipment, were exposed to diesel exhaust with no exhaust removal systems, or came home in uniforms with fire residue on them — practices that no longer happen, Wilson said.

“We didn’t start learning about this stuff until the mid-2000s… we didn’t know anything about diesel exhaust, carcinogens… we just didn’t know.”

In July, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, released a preliminary report classifying occupational exposure to toxins as a firefighter as a human carcinogen.

Previously, it was classified as a possible human carcinogen based on limited evidence for human cancer.

Wilson applied to Fire Emergency New Zealand, as an ACC accredited employer, in July 2021 for compensation as he believed his cancer was occupational.

However, the ACC toxicology panel found that there was “no causal relationship between firefighting and thyroid cancer” in Wilson’s claim.

This is despite Wilson providing medical statements from his doctor and specialist that support his claim.

He is currently working with the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) to appeal that decision.

NZPFU Secretary Joanne Watson joined the union in December 2019 and since then she had seen at least one firefighter a month with cancer also trying to get their occupational claims approved by FENZ.

The claims first go to FENZ, but are referred to ACC’s toxicology panel for review.

The NZPFU and other fire unions have been pushing for the introduction of presumptive legislation for firefighters since 2013, she said.

The presumed legislation means firefighters don’t have to prove firefighting caused their cancer when filing a claim, and exists for a specified list of cancers in Canada, Australia and the United States.

In Canada, the territories of Yukon and Manitoba expanded their suspected legislation to include thyroid cancer in the past year, while a bill passed by the US House of Representatives last month added thyroid cancer to the list of suspected diseases for federal firefighters.

FENZ acting deputy chief executive of People Tjene Tedeschi said it recognized there was an increased risk of occupational cancer for firefighters because of the environment in which they worked.

Although FENZ had supported NZPFU’s submission of proposals for presumptive legislation in 2013, it had accepted Parliament’s decision at the time not to change the ACC system to provide presumptive legislation to firefighters, she said.

“We understand that such a change to the ACC system would have meant that ACC would have taken into account the wide range of professions where exposure to carcinogens is a known hazard, to ensure fairness across all professions,” she said.

In 2020, the ACC Toxicology Panel was established to assess on a case-by-case basis whether a firefighter’s cancer diagnosis was reasonably likely to be due to significant exposure to fire at work, with 23 work-related cancer claims being accepted by professional firefighters since then, she said.

“This was not possible before the creation of the panel,” she said.

• Are you a professional firefighter and have you previously rejected a professional claim? Email reporter Laura Hooper, who is further investigating this issue in New Zealand.

ACC’s toxicology panel consists of five specialists who review the literature and determine the likelihood that cancer is work-related, based on the type of cancer and the degree of exposure to fire smoke for the client.

Next, claims are assessed in three steps to determine whether the job task caused or contributed to the injury, whether there is no possibility that the injury was caused outside of work, and finally whether the risk is significantly greater for people performing that task. than those who do not carry it out.

ACC Minister Carmel Sepuloni said that while the Labor government is not considering introducing suspected legislation, an amendment currently pending in Parliament would make it easier for firefighters and workers in other professions to make occupational cancer claims.

“ACC is available to all New Zealanders and introducing presumed coverage for one group would create equity problems for workers in other occupations,” she said.

She was aware of firefighters’ concerns about the evidence needed as part of the ACC toxicology process and had met with union officials to discuss this.

As a result, the government amended the process through the Amending Compensation Act (Maternal Birth Damage and Other Matters), which would return to the House for a second reading in a few weeks, she said.

“The amendment shifts the burden of proof to ACC (and not the plaintiff). ACC will now be responsible for providing evidence to show that the risk of injury is not higher for people who work in a particular environment, compared to those who are not,” she said.