Firefighters in Airdrie and across Alberta are excited after the Provincial Government announced last Friday (January 19) that they would make amendments to legislation dealing with cancer contracted from exposure to carcinogens.

Under the new legislation, firefighters who contract ovarian or cervical cancer after ten years on the job will receive workers compensation benefits and supports. The legislation also reduced the minimum exposure time for testicular cancer from twenty to ten years, and eliminated an expiry date on the regulation.

"We were quite excited to hear this," said Matt Elgie, Secretary with the Airdrie Professional Firefighters Association. "It's a really progressive move from the government to recognize that the women we work alongside are exposed to the same carcinogens as we are."

Elgie explained that these types of cancers are on a list of presumptive cancers, meaning if a firefighter has worked a certain period of time and then is diagnosed with the cancer, it's presumed the disease was contracted as a direct result of occupational exposure. Under the previous legislation, the minimum exposure period was twenty years and only applied to testicular cancer, but Elgie said increasingly firefighters were being diagnosed between the ten and twenty year range. Now, you no longer have to wait for the twenty year mark to qualify for WCB.

Elgie explained the addition of female specific cancers is an important recognition of the risks female firefighters take on the job. He said since there are more male firefighters than female firefighters, it has been difficult in the past to gather empirical data that shows the cause of those cancers. Even so, Elgie believes more people are coming to the conclusion held by most firefighters.

"If I'm standing side by side as my female counterparts, we're exposed to the same things and I'm contracting testicular cancer after ten years of performing this job, would it only make sense that they're exposed to the same things and they're more prone to ovarian or cervical or breast cancer."

There are more than 14,000 full-time, part-time, casual or volunteer firefighters in Alberta, and around eight percent of them are women. Elgie said of Airdrie's 66 firefighters in the suppression division, three are women. They, alongside their male coworkers, were thrilled by the announcement.

 

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