Bill Text: CA AB128 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Workers' compensation: cancer presumption.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB128 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB128-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 128 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Coto
JANUARY 16, 2009
An act to amend Section 3212.1 of the Labor Code, relating to
workers' compensation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 128, as introduced, Coto. Workers' compensation: cancer
presumption.
Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system to
compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or
her employment, and requires an employer to provide, or pay for all
reasonable costs of, medical services necessary to care for or
relieve work-related injuries. Existing law further provides that in
the case of active firefighting members of certain fire departments
and in the case of certain peace officers, a compensable injury
includes cancer that develops or manifests itself during the period
when the firefighter or peace officer demonstrates that he or she was
exposed, while in the service of the public agency, to a known
carcinogen, as defined, and the carcinogen is reasonably linked to
the disabling cancer. Existing law establishes a presumption that the
cancer in these cases is presumed to arise out of, and in the course
of, employment, unless the presumption is controverted by evidence
that the primary site of the cancer has been established and that the
carcinogen to which the member has demonstrated exposure is not
reasonably linked to the disabling cancer.
Existing law extends this presumption to a member following
termination of service for a period of 3 calendar months for each
full year of the requisite service, but not to exceed 60 months in
any circumstance, commencing with the last date actually worked in
the specified capacity.
This bill would instead extend the presumption to a member
following termination of service for a period of one year for each
full year of the requisite service, commencing with the last date
actually worked in the specified capacity.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) A person's risk of developing a particular cancer is
influenced by a combination of factors, including exposure to
cancer-causing agents in their environment and, in particular, in
their workplace. In many cases, these factors may act together or in
sequence to cause cancer.
(b) In the course of performing their job-related duties,
firefighters and other public safety personnel routinely come into
contact with materials known to cause various types of cancer.
(c) California's existing public safety cancer presumption statute
is extended for a period of three calendar months for each full year
of service that an eligible public safety officer worked, not to
exceed 60 months beyond the cancer-stricken officer's last day of
service.
(d) Since the original public safety cancer presumption statute
was enacted nearly three decades ago, research has revealed that
latency periods for some industrially caused cancers can be 10 years
or as long as 30 years or more. Therefore, cancers diagnosed today
are being associated with genetic changes that occurred in the cells
due to cancer-causing exposures several years, if not decades, prior
to the diagnosis.
(e) Other states, such as New Hampshire, Vermont, Wisconsin, and
Rhode Island, recognize the existence of prolonged cancer latency
periods and have extended safeguards to their respective public
safety personnel that more appropriately reflect these periods.
(f) Given the complex synergistic effects of multiple compound
exposures, as well as the rapidly growing introduction of new
chemicals and industrial compounds into the environment in which our
state's public safety officers work each day while protecting the
lives and property of the citizens of this great state, it is most
appropriate that the public safety cancer presumption statute of
limitations be stricken with a sense of urgency.
SEC. 2. Section 3212.1 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
3212.1. (a) This section applies to all of the following:
(1) Active firefighting members, whether volunteers, partly paid,
or fully paid, of all of the following fire departments:
(A) A fire department of a city, county, city and county,
district, or other public or municipal corporation or political
subdivision.
(B) A fire department of the University of California and the
California State University.
(C) The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
(D) A county forestry or firefighting department or unit.
(2) Active firefighting members of a fire department that serves a
United States Department of Defense installation and who are
certified by the Department of Defense as meeting its standards for
firefighters.
(3) Peace officers, as defined in Section 830.1, subdivision (a)
of Section 830.2, and subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 830.37, of
the Penal Code, who are primarily engaged in active law enforcement
activities.
(4) (A) Fire and rescue services coordinators who work for the
Office of Emergency Services.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph, "fire and rescue services
coordinator" means a coordinator with any of the following job
classifications: coordinator, senior coordinator, or chief
coordinator.
(b) The term "injury," as used in this division, includes cancer,
including leukemia, that develops or manifests itself during a period
in which any member described in subdivision (a) is in the service
of the department or unit, if the member demonstrates that he or she
was exposed, while in the service of the department or unit, to a
known carcinogen as defined by the International Agency for Research
on Cancer, or as defined by the director.
(c) The compensation that is awarded for cancer shall include full
hospital, surgical, medical treatment, disability indemnity, and
death benefits, as provided by this division.
(d) The cancer so developing or manifesting itself in these cases
shall be presumed to arise out of and in the course of the
employment. This presumption is disputable and may be controverted by
evidence that the primary site of the cancer has been established
and that the carcinogen to which the member has demonstrated exposure
is not reasonably linked to the disabling cancer. Unless so
controverted, the appeals board is bound to find in accordance with
the presumption. This presumption shall be extended to a member
following termination of service for a period of three
calendar months one year for each full year of
the requisite service, but not to exceed 60 months in any
circumstance, commencing with the last date actually worked
in the specified capacity.
(e) The amendments to this section enacted during the 1999 portion
of the 1999-2000 Regular Session shall be applied to claims for
benefits filed or pending on or after January 1, 1997, including, but
not limited to, claims for benefits filed on or after that date that
have previously been denied, or that are being appealed following
denial.
(f) This section shall be known, and may be cited as, the William
Dallas Jones Cancer Presumption Act of 2009.
