Today is a historic day for New Zealand’s firefighters as the first step to recognising occupational cancers has been taken with Greens MP Mike Davidson’s presumptive legislation Bill.

The NZPFU has been working with Mike Davidson MP and his staff to get the Bill to this stage. The NZ Greens Bill recognises 21 cancers for both career and volunteer firefighters exposed to the hazards of a fire scene. The Bill extends that protection to fire investigators who are exposed to the off-gassing of toxic structure fires.

The NZPFU membership is celebrating this significant and historic step. We greatly appreciate MP Mike Davidson’s and the Green Party’s support.

We cannot overstate the significance of this Bill for generations of firefighters to come!

The NZPFU is calling on all political parties to put firefighters’ health before partisan politics to get this Bill on the agenda and passed!

Cross-party support is needed to get the Bill to its first reading and through a select committee process before being passed.

Firefighters have significantly higher rates of specific cancers due to the high and unavoidable exposures to a cocktail of carcinogens when attending structure fires, vehicle accidents, and hazardous events.

Occupational cancer is the biggest killer of firefighters worldwide.

• Firefighters can never be fully protected from the exposures to toxins and carcinogens, as their firefighting uniforms must be able to breathe; otherwise, they would perish from metabolic heat exposure.
• Uniforms and Personal Protective Equipment, including the use of breathing apparatus and decontamination procedures, have vastly improved over the decades, but sadly the rate of firefighter occupational cancer cases keeps growing.
• This is due to the increased toxicity of structure fires, including residential fires. Residential fires can be the most toxic with the high level of plastics, man-made furnishings, and construction materials.

An unintended consequence of ACC makes it difficult to get occupational cancer recognised as they would for any other work-related illness or injury. Due to the nature of emergency response, their workplaces are not tested, and it is an accumulation of exposures that results in the high level of cancer cases when compared to the general population. They have to fight tooth and nail to get cover.

At a time when a firefighter with cancer should only have to worry about treatment and spending precious time with their family, they are instead having to find evidence to support their case. With NZPFU support, lawyers and specialist reports are funded through a lengthy and stressful battle to get FENZ and ACC to agree to cover, just as they would for any other occupational injury or disease.

We have had the sad situation where the legal process has taken so long that the firefighter has died before their case was accepted. In those cases, the firefighter took the worry that their family would not be looked after to their grave. It is devastating that they spend their last days worried and stressed, unable to spend those precious days focused on spending time with their loved ones.

When passed, this Bill will mean that a firefighter diagnosed with one of the 21 listed cancers, and with the required years of service, will be presumed to have occupational cancer and access ACC cover as they would for any other work-related illness or injury. The presumption can be rebutted if it is proven the cancer was not caused by firefighting.

The NZPFU has been lobbying for almost 15 years for presumptive legislation to recognise firefighters’ occupational cancer.

• In 2013, the NZPFU and the then New Zealand Fire Service co-hosted an international conference into firefighters’ occupational cancer.
• In 2019, the NZPFU hosted international expert, retired Canadian firefighter and lawyer Alex Forrest, to meet with MPs across the political spectrum from Whangārei to Invercargill, including an event at Parliament to educate and promote the need for presumptive legislation.
• All career firefighters in every province in Canada; in every state, territory, and federally in Australia; and in almost every state in the USA have specific cancers presumed to be occupational cancers. Other countries are well on the way to having similar presumptive legislation enacted.

In unity,

NZPFU National Secretary Wattie Watson on behalf of National President Joseph Stanley, National Vice President Martin Campbell, Northern Branch President Jeffrey Shrimpton, Secretary David Phillips, and Vice President Terry Bird; Central Branch President Rik Walsh, Secretary Robert Hutchison, and Vice President Tony Adie; Southern Branch President Graeme Gilroy, Secretary Mark Leonard, and Vice President Aaron McKay.