Nebraska firefighter cancer bill links disease to substances

Nebraska lawmakers are considering a cancer presumption for both career and volunteer firefighters that calls on sufferers to link their cancer to chemicals they were exposed to.

Legislature Bill 400, introduced Friday, names the substances that are “known carcinogens,” based on medical research, linking them to more than a dozen types of cancers that would be acceptable under the presumption.

For example, the bill states that “arsenic, asbestos, benzene, diesel exhaust and soot, formaldehyde, and hydrogen chloride shall be deemed to be known carcinogens that are reasonably associated with nasopharyngeal cancer, including laryngeal cancer and pharyngeal cancer.”

The bill states that the list is “not an exhaustive list and shall not preclude any person from demonstrating, on a case-by-case basis … that a substance is a known carcinogen or is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”