HB532 Alabama 2021 Session

Under existing law, if a non-volunteer firefighter develops a disability that impairs his or her ability to perform his or her duties as a firefighter, or dies in the line of duty as a firefighter, the firefighter, or his or her dependents, is eligible for compensation for the disability or death. The compensation for disability applies if the firefighter, upon entering into service as a firefighter for a municipality, has passed a successful physical examination that did not show any evidence of a firefighter's occupational disease

Also under existing law, cancer is recognized as a firefighter's occupational disease if the firefighter can establish that he or she was exposed while in the employ of the city, to a known carcinogen that is reasonably linked to the disabling cancer. A firefighter who develops a firefighter's occupational disease is presumed to have developed the disease in the course of duty

This bill would provide that when a firefighter who develops cancer within 10 years of his or her last date of employment with a municipality, the cancer is presumed to be a firefighter's occupational disease, thus rendering the firefighter eligible for disability benefits, if it is established that the firefighter, while in the employ of the municipality, was exposed to a known carcinogen that is reasonably linked to the disabling cancer

Relating to firefighters; to amend Section 11-43-144, Code of Alabama 1975, to further provide for which cancers are included within the meaning of firefighter's occupational disease.