After about five hours of general file debate, a bill that would provide workers’ compensation benefits to firefighters who develop certain cancers was passed over Friday at the request of the introducer.
LB400, sponsored by Fremont Sen. Dave Wordekemper, would amend the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act to include cancer experienced by firefighters as a result of exposure to known carcinogens in the course of their employment.
As introduced last session, the bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that cancer experienced by a firefighter arose out of the course of employment. The measure would apply to professional and volunteer firefighters who have served for at least five years.
Retired firefighters would be eligible for medical benefits only and must be diagnosed within 60 months of retiring.
Wordekemper said the International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified firefighting as a Group I carcinogen, meaning the profession itself is carcinogenic to humans and carries the highest level of cancer risk.
There are 28 states that have passed similar legislation providing all firefighters with a rebuttable presumption for occupational cancer, he said, but Nebraska presumes that cancer is duty related only if a firefighter dies as a result of the disease.
A pending Business and Labor Committee amendment would replace LB400 with a modified version of the original proposal.
The amendment would establish a rebuttable presumption only if two conditions are met: if a cancer was shown to be medically caused by employment-related exposure to cancer-causing substances, and if the firefighters’ previous physical examinations showed no evidence of cancer.
Kearney Sen. Stan Clouse offered an amendment to the committee amendment, adopted on a 25-20 vote, to address concerns about the inclusion of volunteer firefighters in LB400.
At Wordekemper’s request, LB400 was passed over to provide time for additional negotiations.
“After meeting with the opposition, we’ve come to an agreement to sit down and see if we can work out our differences,” he said.
The Legislature moved to the next item on the agenda without voting on the bill or the committee amendment.
