While the firefighters fought against the catastrophic flames in the County of Los Angeles in January, the American senators of California, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, signed legislation with a simple objective: to provide federal assistance to the first stakeholders diagnosed with cancer linked to the service.
THE Honor our act of fallen heroes is considered crucial by its supporters, climate change fueling a Increase in the frequency of forest fires and the fight against fires considered carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. Firefighters have a 14% higher chance to die of cancer that the general population, according to a study in 2024, and the disease was 66% manager of career firefighters from 2002 to 2019.
Los Angeles forest fires brought the fear generated by these fatty statistics. Like houses, businesses and cars – and the products that are cremated, gases, chemicals, asbestos and Other toxic pollutants have been released in the air, often settling in the ground and dust. The first stakeholders working at close range, often without adequate respiratory protection, were more at risk of developing unfavorable health problems.
Only a few days after the fires, the researchers tested a group of 20 firefighters from northern California to help fight the flames and found dangerously high levels of lead and mercury in their blood. The results are part of a longer -term study that followed the impacts on the health of January fires on people exposed to toxic emissions. The team includes researchers from Harvard, UCLA, UC Davis, Texas University in Austin and USC Keck School of Medicine.
“The firefighters and the first speakers brought their lives into play without a second thought to protect the Californian communities against devastating fires in southern California,” Padilla said in a statement. “When they sacrifice their lives or face serious handicaps due to cancers related to the services, we have a shared duty to help put their families on foot.”
But although the law of honorary on our fallen heroes has bipartite support, he always faces a political road politically, and those who have spent years managing programs managed by the similar government warn against major implementation problems if the measure becomes the law.
The Senate Judicial Committee adopted a similar bill in 2024, but the measure did not advance a vote on the prosecution. And with legislators reflecting on potentially massive federal budget cuts, its fate at Congress this year is far from clear. What is clear is that, for the legislation linking the advantages of the health conditions related to the services, the devil is in detail.
“The adoption of the legislation is not as difficult as to keep it,” said John Feal, who was injured on the Ground Zero website of September 11 while working as a demolition supervisor. He has since become a fierce defender of the first speakers and military veterans.
“You look at the legislation maturing, because more and more people who need help manifest,” said Feal. At this point, he added, the capacity of the program to develop – and successfully treat the applications of those who have embarked on help – can become a challenge.
It was, Feal said, what happened with the various government programs created after the September 11 attacks to provide monetary compensation and health care to the first injured stakeholders, some of which diagnosed later with cancer. Both Victims compensation fund of September 11 and the World Trade Center health program encountered substantial funding problems and have been beset by logistical failures.
The structure of the law of honoring on our fallen heroes, sponsored by senator Amy Klobuchar (D-minn.), Could allow him to bypass certain financing traps. Rather than creating a new benefits program, the bill will grant firefighters who have non -9/11 conditions related to cancer Public security benefits programwhich provides monetary, invalidity and education death services to family respondents and surviving family members.
Death services in these programs are considered compulsory expenses and are funded independently of the budgetary decisions of the congress. However, the financing of disability and education services depends on annual credits.
Even with complete funding, legislation could face implementation problems similar to those that afflict the September 11 programs, including complex eligibility criteria, difficulties in documenting that diseases are linked to services and – more recently – long expectations to register in the middle of Vection of federal cutting attempts.
Lawyer Michael Barasch represented the late detective from New York police, James Zadroga, who developed pulmonary fibrosis from a toxic exhibition on the World Trade Center website and for whom the September 11 health and remuneration law is named. Barasch, which still represents victims and lobbies on September 11 for improvements and financing of programs, said that the honorable law on our fallen heroes should rationalize the process so that the first stakeholders document that their cancers are linked to the fight against forest fires.
“According to my experience, representing more than 40,000 members of the community of September 11, any similar program should have a clear set of standards to determine eligibility,” Barasch told Kff Health News. “Unnecessary complexity creates a serious risk that stakeholders should have been eligible may not have access to benefits.”
Feal has added that legislators should be ready to strengthen the funding to adequately provide the public security agents’ service program if this is added to the conditions currently covered, noting that the September 11 programs have inflated because more and more first stakeholders have presented conditions related to services.
“There were 75,000 people in the program in 2015. There are now nearly 140,000,” Feal said. “There is a backlog on registration in the WTC program because they underestimate, and there is also a backlog to get your certified diseases so that you can be remunerated.”
While the Public Security Services program is currently being implemented, firefighters and other first stakeholders are eligible for support for physical injuries they suffer in the exercise of their functions or for deaths from heart attacks linked to the obligation, brain vascular accidents, mental health problems and diseases related to 9/11. The bill would add provisions for those who die or become permanently disabled from other cancers related to the services.
The honorable law on our Fallen Heroes was presented in 2023 and reintroduced on January 23 of this year, Klobuchar refers to California forest fires in it press release. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the bill would cost around $ 250 million a year from 2024 to 2034; He has not weighed since the measure was reintroduced.
“The influence of cancer on firefighters is undeniable,” said Edward Kelly, President of the International ASSN. firefighters. “When a firefighter dies through labor cancer, we must ensure that their families obtain death services in service.”
This article was produced by Kff Health NewsA national writing room that produces in -depth journalism on health problems.
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