In honor of Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month, state leaders gathered at the Waterbury Fire Department on Wednesday to highlight a new law that ensures firefighters get the treatment they need without having to prove how they contracted cancer.
Joseph Bogdanski found out he had thyroid cancer in June of last year after having a cancer screening that was offered at the Waterbury Fire Department.
He’s a fire driver there for Rescue 9.
"Thyroid cancer is supposed to be the cancer to get...doctors say it's very treatable, slow moving. Unfortunately, mine was an aggressive form of cancer," Bogdanski said.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cancer is the number one killer of firefighters, accounting for nearly 75% of all firefighter deaths.
Studies show firefighters have a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer, and a 14% higher risk of dying from it, than the rest of the population.
For a long time, Connecticut firefighters diagnosed with cancer, like Bogdanski, didn't have basic workplace protections.
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But under the new presumptive cancer legislation, he will not only be able to get wage replacement, but he’ll also be eligible for medical reimbursement, disability retirement and line-of-duty death benefits.
"That means if they got sick they didn’t know if their job would be safe, they didn’t know if they’d get a paycheck, they didn’t know if their families would be protected," Pete Brown, the leader of the Uniform Professional Firefighter Association of CT, said.
Lori Pepler, a widow from Torrington, said her husband Chris was a firefighter for 18 years. He died in 2017 from occupational cancer.
She filed a lawsuit claiming the city of Torrington failed to honor its pension commitments to her and her son—eventually reaching a settlement years later - a tough ordeal she hopes future families won't have to battle.
"Hopefully now with the passage of this law, CT families will never have to go through what we did," Pepler said.
There are also a number of ways fire departments around the state are trying to minimize the risks of toxin exposure on the job like not wearing their gear on errands, or storing it after it's contaminated in another compartment on the way back from a fire, ensuring it get cleaned, making sure to wipe down after a fire and even changing your hood.
To learn more and to see if you qualify for protection under this law, click here.
