Arizona high court rules firefighter’s brain cancer not compensable

The Arizona Supreme Court Wednesday ruled a firefighter’s brain cancer is not compensable under workers compensation presumption because the state’s firefighter cancer law went into effect after he was diagnosed.

Vande Krol, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020, contended that the law applied to his workers compensation claim even though it went into effect nearly a year after his diagnosis and eight months after he filed his claim, according to Vande Krol v. Superstition/Benchmark.

The state high court, in reversing an appeals court ruling, stated there “is nothing in the 2021 statute that expressly declares it to be retroactive.”

It remanded the case back to the appellate court with instructions to consider the facts under a 2017 law that states a firefighter’s cancer is compensable if the worker can prove exposure to a carcinogen.

Mr. Krol attempted to prove this before an administrative law judge, arguing his cancer was an occupational disease caused by exposure to smoke and soot, firefighting foam, diesel fumes from fire engines, and a cell tower located near his fire station.

An administrative law judge had previously ruled that Mr. Krol, in attempting to satisfy the parameters set in the 2017 law, had failed to do so, “as his experts ‘did not provide a link between a specific carcinogen and the specific cancer (he) has,” according to court documents.

One justice dissented from the state high court ruling, writing that the “only limitation (in the 2021 law) based on timing is that the firefighter must be ‘diagnosed with … brain cancer not more than fifteen years after the firefighter’s last date of employment.’”