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Hartford — I was proud to stand with members of the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association this week in support of SB 937. This bill is intended to support firefighters and their families dealing with work-related cancers by ensuring they are entitled to workers’ compensation. I co-sponsored the measure to create a rebuttable presumption that a cancer diagnosis was a result of employment as a firefighter.
About 160 firefighters testified in support of this proposal during the Labor Committee’s public hearing.
While there will be a potential cost to municipalities, to qualify, the disease must result in death or the temporary or permanent total or partial disability of the employee, as with any workers’ compensation claim. Workers’ compensation law is separate from the existing Firefighter Cancer Relief Program, which is unchanged by this proposal.
There are approximately 26,800 firefighters in the State of Connecticut.
