Cancer kills more firefighters than fire. Changes to health coverage in Sask. are offering more support | CBC News

Firefighters in Saskatchewan have been lobbying for decades for better cancer coverage. Now, the Saskatchewan Workers Compensation Board (WCB) is stepping in to provide some relief.

Saskatchewan firefighters are now eligible for WCB coverage for up to 22 types of cancer, six more than before.

Tyler Packham has spent the last 23 years of his life as a firefighter in Regina and has already had a brush with cancer.

Packham was screened at a firefighting conference and was found to have nodules on his thyroid. He had to have surgery to get them removed.

“They only took out my thyroid, so I’m still dealing with nodules on the other side,” Packham said. “[I’m] hoping that they doesn’t progress to cancer.”

The World Health Organization declared firefighting a Group 1 carcinogen two years ago. Health Canada announced this fall that cancer is the leading cause of job-related deaths for firefighters across the country.

Packham said firefighters are well aware that the job leads to cancer, but there isn’t much they can do about it.

“It’s very, very frustrating,” Packham said.

Packham also serves as the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 181. The union is among the groups who have been lobbying for change. He said the new health coverage has been a long time coming. 

‘No way to get away from it’

Packham said firefighters do everything they can when returning from a fire, but no matter how many times they wash their gear, chemical residue still lingers on equipment and gear.

“There’s no way to get away from it,” Packham said. “We’re walking around in a smoke-filled environment and crawling around in water that we’ve been spraying and it’s being absorbed through our skin.”

He said firefighters are handling mixed plastics, synthetics, car and dumpster fires on a regular basis.

“Unfortunately, we all figured it out way too late that there were these hidden hazards,” Philip Germain, CEO of the Saskatchewan WCB, said.

“We want to do everything we can to help them prevent those injuries.”

Packham described his profession as “the best job in the world,” despite the health risks.

Types of cancer coverage

The six new types of cancer covered include: primary-site thyroid, pancreatic, penile, soft tissue sarcoma, mesothelioma and laryngeal cancers.

Any full-time, part-time or volunteer firefighters in Saskatchewan who have one of the 22 cancers now covered may be eligible for benefits from WCB to support them and their family.

The coverage only applies if the cancer is found in a primary site, meaning the location on the body where the cancer first appeared.

Coverage restrictions

Firefighter must work for a minimum period of time before they can access coverage. 

For leukemia, they must have served at least five years. But for a diagnosis like esophageal cancer, it’s 25 years.

“They’re based on research that would suggest if a firefighter regularly attended fires over this period of time, it is quite likely they would have this type of cancer,” Germain said.

“I don’t think it’s particularly that fair, but I understand that they have to draw a line somewhere,” Packham said.

Saskatchewan expands cancer coverage for firefighters

Six types of cancer have been added to the list that Saskatchewan Worker’s Compensation Board (WCB) covers for most firefighters, bringing the total to 22 cancers.

Minimum years served to be eligible for coverage

• Five years – leukemia.
• Ten years – brain, primary site breast, primary site cervical, primary site ovarian, primary site pancreatic, primary site thyroid, testicular.
• Fifteen years – bladder, colorectal, lung (non-smoking firefighters), multiple myeloma, primary site prostate, primary site laryngeal, cancer, primary site mesothelioma, primary site penile, primary-site skin, primary site soft tissue sarcoma.
• Twenty years – kidney, primary non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
• Twenty-five years – esophageal.

The coverage also only applies to new injury claims. A firefighter with a previously denied claim can also ask the board to reconsider it.

Germain said the WCB is also working on providing more preventative support, like providing firefighters with fresh gear, making sure it is cleaned on a regular basis and ensuring fire halls are properly exhausted.

Packham said he’s grateful for the new supports, but wants to see them improve.

“To get the latency period down to two years and to consider all cancers the firefighter [could] get, that would be the ultimate goal.”