Subject Cancers in Firefighters and Fire Investigators

Transcription

1 If a full-time, part-time or volunteer firefighter or a fire investigator suffers from and is impaired by one of the prescribed s described below, and meets the conditions related to duration of employment and age outlined in the applicable Regulation, the disease is presumed to be an occupational disease due to the nature of the worker s employment, unless the contrary is shown. Prescribed s are: primary s of the brain, bladder, kidney, colon/rectum, ureter, esophagus, testis, breast, prostate primary non-hodgkin s lymphoma, multiple myeloma and three specified primary s Purpose The purpose of this policy is to outline the prescribed s and the circumstances under which they will be presumed to be work-related occupational diseases. Guidelines Inclusion This policy applies to workers who are full-time or volunteer firefighters as defined in 1 of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997 part-time firefighters, defined as a worker who is a firefighter and is not a volunteer or fulltime firefighter workers who are employed by a band council and assigned to undertake fire protection services on a reserve (band council and reserve are defined in the Indian Act (Canada)), or provide fire protection services on a reserve, either voluntarily or for a nominal consideration, honorarium, training or activity allowance fire investigators, defined as a worker to whom the Fire Marshal appointed under subsection 8(1) of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997 has delegated the duty to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of a fire, a worker who was an inspector appointed under subsection 2(4) of the Fire Marshals Act before that Act was repealed by the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, or a worker who is employed by a band council and assigned to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of a fire on a reserve Published: 27 April 2015 Page 1 of 5

2 For the purpose of the policy, the term "firefighter" refers to a full-time firefighter, a part-time firefighter or a volunteer firefighter. Exclusion This policy does not apply to forest or wildland firefighters. Prescribed Cancers A medical diagnosis of non-hodgkin s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, one of the three specified s, or originating from the specified organ is required for adjudication of claims under this policy. The prescribed s listed in the Regulation are listed below with their World Health Organization classification numbers. Prescribed Cancer ICD-9 Code* 1. Primary-site brain Primary-site bladder Primary-site kidney 4. Primary-site colorectal 5. Primary non- Hodgkin s lymphoma (NHL) Description of ICD-9 Code of brain of bladder of kidney, except pelvis of renal pelvis of colon of rectum, rectosigmoid junction, and anus Lymphosarcoma and reticulosarcoma Other malignant neoplasms of lymphoid and histiocytic tissue ICD-10 Code* C71 C67 C64 C65 C18 C19 C20 C21 C82 C83 C84 C85 Description of ICD- 10 Code of brain of bladder of kidney, except renal pelvis of renal pelvis of colon of rectosigmoid junction of rectum of anus and anal canal Follicular lymphoma Non-follicular lymphoma Mature T/NK-cell lymphomas Other and unspecified types of NHL Published: 27 April 2015 Page 2 of 5

3 Acute myeloblastic Acute myeloid C Primary acute myeloid Acute lymphoid Acute lymphoblastic, Primary acute C91.0 lymphocytic, Primary chronic lymphocytic Chronic lymphocytic Chronic lymphoid C91.1 of B-cell type of 7. Primary-site ureter C66 ureter of ureter 8. Primary-site esophageal of 150 C15 esophagus of esophagus of 174 female breast 9. Primary-site breast C50 of of breast 175 male breast 10. Multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma C90.0 Multiple myeloma 11. Primary-site testicular of 186 C62 testis of testis 12. Primary-site prostate of 185 C61 prostate of prostate *International Statistical Classification of Diseases (Ninth and Tenth Revisions). Prescribed Duration of Employment Firefighters and fire investigators with the minimum years of eligible Ontario service for the prescribed are presumed to have a work-related occupational disease. The eligible years of service is the sum of all employment periods as a firefighter or fire investigator from the date of hire until the date of diagnosis, whether consecutive or non-consecutive.. If a worker served in more than one capacity as a full-time, part-time or volunteer firefighter or fire investigator in the same period, this period will only be counted once towards the eligible years of service. For band council firefighters and fire investigators, the eligible years of service are those employment periods as described above for which the band council had WSIB coverage, in addition to any periods served in another capacity as defined by the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, For of the colon or rectum (i.e., colorectal ), there is an additional requirement of obtaining the medical diagnosis of disease prior to age 61. The date of diagnosis is not necessarily the same as the date of accident. For occupational diseases Published: 27 April 2015 Page 3 of 5

4 the date of accident is the date of earliest evidence of documented medical attention the date of diagnosis is the date of earliest medical documentation that establishes the worker s diagnosis The Regulation prescribes the following minimum durations of employment: Prescribed Cancer Duration of Firefighting Employment 1. Primary-site brain 10 years 2. Primary-site bladder 15 years 3. Primary-site kidney 20 years 4. Primary-site colorectal 10 years (diagnosed prior to 61st birthday) 5. Primary non-hodgkin s lymphoma 20 years 6. Primary acute myeloid Primary chronic lymphocytic 15 years Primary acute lymphocytic 7. Primary-site ureter 15 years 8. Primary-site esophageal 25 years 9. Primary-site breast 10 years 10. Multiple Myeloma 15 years 11. Primary-site testicular 10 years 12. Primary-site prostate 15 years The Presumption and its Rebuttal The Regulation provides a presumption that the prescribed s are work-related occupational diseases. To qualify for this presumption, workers must meet the inclusion criteria of this policy, and must have been diagnosed with a prescribed, and diagnosed after the prescribed minimum employment duration (and diagnosed prior to age 61 in the case of colorectal ), and diagnosed with that on or after January 1, Workers not meeting the inclusion criteria, and those excluded from this policy, will have their claims determined on their individual merits. The presumption may be rebutted if it is established that the employment was not a significant contributing factor to the occurrence of the. Decision Making In Earlier Time Periods Workers or their survivors may refile previously denied claims, or present new claims, with no time restrictions other than a requirement that the date of disease diagnosis is on or after January 1, Published: 27 April 2015 Page 4 of 5

5 Application Date This policy applies to decisions made on or after January 1, Document history This document replaces dated January 2, This document was previously published as: dated July 7, 2014 dated February 23, 2010 dated February 11, 2008 dated October 12, dated June 15, References Legislative Authority Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, as amended by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act (Presumptions for Firefighters), 2007 s 2(1), 15, 15.1(4), 15.1(5), 15.1(6), 15.2, 94, 183 O.Reg. 253/07 as amended by O. Reg. 423/09, O. Reg. 113/14 and O. Reg. 265/14. Minute Administrative #3, April 21, 2015, Page 527 Published: 27 April 2015 Page 5 of 5