The risk firefighters face for developing job-related cancers was well known in the fire service long before elected officials and the national news media started taking more notice in recent years and cast a brighter light on the issue.
There are 37 states that have passed cancer presumption laws for firefighters, which provide workers' compensation benefits for those with certain types of cancers directly attributed to the job. With the fight ongoing in the remaining states, the issue was recently front and center when firefighter Michael Palumbo Jr., who championed such a law in Ohio and had the resulting bill named after him, lost his battle with cancer on May 24.