First-In-Nation Cancer Presumption Marks 40th Anniversary
On the evening of April 6, 1973, Whittier firefighters Richard Rowland and Porter Griggers were called out to mop up a hazardous materials spill in a nearby shopping center. An overturned tanker was leaking an extremely toxic chemical soil fumigant containing dichloropropene, a probable human carcinogen.
While working for L.A. County Fire six years later, Rowland and Griggers were both diagnosed with the same extremely rare form of cancer: diffuse histiocytic lymphoma. In late 1980, the two men died within six weeks of each other.
The tragedy laid bare an issue that was becoming all too familiar to firefighters and their families. Repeated exposure to toxic chemicals, coupled with often inadequate (or unused) breathing protection, was producing cancer rates among firefighters up to three times the average.
In the fall of 1980, at the Federated Fire Fighters of California Convention in Anaheim, delegates unanimously passed Resolution #19: Presumptive Cancer Legislation for Fire Fighters. The idea was simple: firefighters who contracted certain types of cancer would be presumed to have gotten it on the job, assuming they could prove their exposures.
Assemblymember Art Torres, a labor-friendly state assembly member agreed to carry the bill, CPF President Dan Terry and Governmental Advocate Brian Hatch hand-carried the legislation – AB 3011 – to every legislative office at the Capitol, assisted by firefighters from up and down the state.
With the help of their powerful legislative allies – Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and Senate President Pro Tempore David Roberti – CPF fought through the roadblocks set by local government groups like the League of California Cities. The fire service as a whole also came together, labor and management, to back the new standard.
On September 29, 1982, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 3011 into law. California had the nation’s first firefighter cancer presumption law.
Since then, nearly 40 states have enacted some kind of cancer presumption for firefighters. In the intervening years, CPF was able to win passage of additional presumptions for hazardous materials, biological exposures (such as MRSA) and, most recently, post-traumatic stress and COVID-19. CPF has also expanded the cancer presumption to strengthen the burden of proof on employers and extend the period for which the presumption applies to 10 years post-retirement.
To this day, CPF continues to fight to protect and extend presumption legislation and fight the efforts of insurers and local agencies to deny these claims. Most recently, CPF’s sponsored SB 1127, cracking down on automatic claim denials and cruel and needless delays, won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Legislature.