Firefighter blames job for cancer
Brent Wilson believes his thyroid cancer was caused by exposure to toxins after 30 years in the job as a firefighter and is backing moves for his occupational claim to be officially recognised.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union said Wilson was not alone, with at least one firefighter a month coming forward to lodge a cancer claim.
Wilson, a senior firefighter in Invercargill, first began noticing symptoms after having chronic issues swallowing and coughing.
Last year, he was diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma, and had his thyroid and a lymph node removed as a result in the same year.
He began his career as a volunteer firefighter in Ohai in 1990. He first became a professional firefighter in Upper Hutt in 1996 before shifting to the Invercargill brigade in 2007.
When he first started out, he said, there was limited knowledge about how carcinogenic firefighting could be.
In the early days they would regularly clean up house fires without protective gear, be exposed to diesel exhausts without exhaust removal systems, or would come home in uniforms with residue from fires on them– practices that no longer take place, Wilson said.
‘‘We only started learning about this stuff in the mid-2000s . . . we didn’t know about diesel exhaust fumes, any of the carcinogens . . . we just didn’t know.’’
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation, has released a preliminary report classifying occupational exposure to toxins as a firefighter as carcinogenic to humans.
Previously, it was classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans on the basis of limited evidence for cancer in humans.
In July 2021, Wilson applied to Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz), as an ACC accredited employer, for compensation given he believed his cancer to be occupational.
However, the ACC toxicology panel found there was ‘‘no causal link between firefighting and thyroid cancer’’ in Wilson’s claim.
This is despite Wilson providing medical statements from his doctor and
‘‘We only started learning about this stuff in the mid-2000s . . . we didn’t know about diesel exhaust fumes, any of the carcinogens . . . we just didn’t know.’’ Brent Wilson
specialist supporting his claim.
He is working with the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union to appeal that decision.
Secretary Joanne Watson joined the union in December 2019 and since then she had seen at least one firefighter a month with cancers also trying to get their occupational claims approved by Fenz. The claims go to Fenz first, but are referred to ACC’s toxicology panel to review.
The Professional Firefighters Union and other firefighter unions have been pushing for presumptive legislation for firefighters to be introduced since 2013, she said.
It means firefighters do not have to prove that firefighting was the cause of their cancer when making a claim, and exists for a specified list of cancers in Canada, Australia and the United States.
In Canada, Yukon territory and Manitoba territory have expanded their presumptive legislation to include thyroid cancer in the past year, while a bill that passed the US House of Representatives last month included thyroid cancer in its list of presumptive illnesses for federal firefighters.
Fenz acting deputy chief executive of people Tjene Tedeschi said it acknowledged there was an increased risk of occupational cancers for firefighters due to the environments they operated within.
While Fenz had been supportive of NZPFU’s submission proposing presumptive legislation in 2013, it had accepted Parliament’s decision at the time to not change the ACC system to provide presumptive legislation to firefighters, she said.
‘‘We understand any such amendment to the ACC system would have required ACC to consider the wide range of occupations where exposures to carcinogens are a known hazard, to ensure fairness across all occupations,’’ she said.
In 2020, the ACC toxicology panel had been established to assess on a case-by-case basis whether it was reasonably likely that a firefighter’s cancer diagnosis was due to significant fire exposure at work, with 23 work-related cancer claims by career firefighters accepted since then, she said.
‘‘This was not possible prior to the panel’s establishment,’’ she said.
ACC’s toxicology panel consists of five specialists who review the literature and determine the probability of cancer being work-related, based on its type and the degree of fire smoke exposure for the client.
Then claims are assessed in three steps to establish whether the job task caused or contributed to the injury, that there’s no possibility of the injury being caused outside of work and finally if the risk is significantly greater for people who perform that job task than those who do not perform it.
Minister for ACC Carmel Sepuloni said while the Government was not looking at introducing presumptive legislation, an amendment before Parliament would make it easier for firefighters and workers in other occupations to make occupational cancer claims.
‘‘ACC is available to all New Zealanders and introducing presumptive cover for one group would cause fairness issues for workers in other occupations,’’ she said.
She was aware of firefighters’ concerns about the proof needed as part of the ACC toxicology process and had met with union officials to discuss this.
As a result, the Government was amending the process through the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which would go back to the House for a second reading in a few weeks, she said.
‘‘The amendment shifts the burden of proof to ACC. ACC will now be responsible for providing proof to demonstrate the risk of suffering the injury is not higher for people employed in a particular environment, compared to those who are not.’’