Cancers in Firefighters and Fire Investigators - Archived January 4, 2016

Policy

If a full-time, part-time or volunteer firefighter or a fire investigator suffers from and is impaired by one of the prescribed cancers described below, and meets the conditions related to duration of employment and age outlined in the applicable Regulation, the disease is presumed to be an occupational disease due to the nature of the worker’s employment, unless the contrary is shown.

Prescribed cancers are:

• primary cancers of the brain, bladder, kidney, colon/rectum, ureter, esophagus, testis, breast, prostate
• primary non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
• multiple myeloma and
• three specified primary leukemias

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to outline the prescribed cancers and the circumstances under which they will be presumed to be work-related occupational diseases.

Guidelines

Inclusion

This policy applies to

• workers who are full-time or volunteer firefighters as defined in Section 1 of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997
• part-time firefighters, defined as a worker who is a firefighter and is not a volunteer or full- time firefighter
• workers who
  • are employed by a band council and assigned to undertake fire protection services on a reserve (band council and reserve are defined in the Indian Act (Canada)), or
  • provide fire protection services on a reserve, either voluntarily or for a nominal consideration, honorarium, training or activity allowance
• fire investigators, defined as
  • a worker to whom the Fire Marshal appointed under subsection 8(1) of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997 has delegated the duty to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of a fire,
  • a worker who was an inspector appointed under subsection 2(4) of the Fire Marshals Act before that Act was repealed by the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, or
  • a worker who is employed by a band council and assigned to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of a fire on a reserve

For the purpose of the policy, the term "firefighter" refers to a full-time firefighter, a part-time firefighter or a volunteer firefighter.

Exclusion

This policy does not apply to forest or wildland firefighters.

Prescribed Cancers

A medical diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, one of the three specified leukemias, or cancer originating from the specified organ is required for adjudication of claims under this policy. The prescribed cancers listed in the Regulation are listed below with their World Health Organization classification numbers.

*International Statistical Classification of Diseases (Ninth and Tenth Revisions).

Prescribed Duration of Employment

Firefighters and fire investigators with the minimum years of eligible Ontario service for the prescribed cancer are presumed to have a work-related occupational disease. The eligible years of service is the sum of all employment periods as a firefighter or fire investigator from the date of hire until the date of diagnosis, whether consecutive or non-consecutive.. If a worker served in more than one capacity as a full-time, part-time or volunteer firefighter or fire investigator in the same period, this period will only be counted once towards the eligible years of service.

For band council firefighters and fire investigators, the eligible years of service are those employment periods as described above for which the band council had WSIB coverage, in addition to any periods served in another capacity as defined by the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997.

For cancer of the colon or rectum (i.e., colorectal cancer), there is an additional requirement of obtaining the medical diagnosis of disease prior to age 61.

The date of diagnosis is not necessarily the same as the date of accident. For occupational diseases

• the date of accident is the date of earliest evidence of documented medical attention
• the date of diagnosis is the date of earliest medical documentation that establishes the worker’s diagnosis

The Regulation prescribes the following minimum durations of employment:

The Presumption and its Rebuttal

The Regulation provides a presumption that the prescribed cancers are work-related occupational diseases. To qualify for this presumption, workers must meet the inclusion criteria of this policy, and must have been

• diagnosed with a prescribed cancer, and
• diagnosed after the prescribed minimum employment duration (and diagnosed prior to age 61 in the case of colorectal cancer), and
• diagnosed with that cancer on or after January 1, 1960.

Workers not meeting the inclusion criteria, and those excluded from this policy, will have their claims determined on their individual merits.

The presumption may be rebutted if it is established that the employment was not a significant contributing factor to the occurrence of the cancer.

Decision Making In Earlier Time Periods

Workers or their survivors may refile previously denied claims, or present new claims, with no time restrictions other than a requirement that the date of disease diagnosis is on or after January 1, 1960.

Application Date

This policy applies to decisions made on or after January 1, 2015.

Document history

This document replaces 23-02-01 dated January 2, 2015.

This document was previously published as:
23-02-01 dated July 7, 2014
23-02-01 dated February 23, 2010
23-02-01 dated February 11, 2008
23-02-01 dated October 12, 2004
16-02-02 dated June 15, 1999.

References

Legislative Authority

Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, as amended by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act (Presumptions for Firefighters), 2007
Sections 2(1), 15, 15.1(4), 15.1(5), 15.1(6), 15.2, 94, 183

O.Reg. 253/07 as amended by O. Reg. 423/09, O. Reg. 113/14 and O. Reg. 265/14.

Minute

Administrative
#3, April 21, 2015, Page 527

This policy was archived on January 4, 2016