The Interior and Agriculture departments are working to better understand and prevent exposure and hazards in the wildland fire environment that have the potential to impact short- and long-term health.
Environmental and Occupational Hazards
In the wildland fire environment, personnel experience occupational hazards such as exposure to smoke, dust, and ash; injury from falling debris; noise exposure; and injuries from strenuous exertion.
This aspect of the Federal Wildland Firefighter Health and Wellbeing program will focus on better understanding these environmental and occupational hazards and improving mitigation measures.
Workers' Compensation
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers' Compensation Program (OWCP) administers the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA), which covers injuries that occur in the performance of duty, including diseases proximately caused by federal employment. It provides health services for an employee who is injured while in the performance of duty. In addition, FECA may pay compensation when an employee is disabled or dies from an injury sustained in the performance of duty.
On December 23, 2022, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 was signed into law (Public Law 117-263). Section 5305, titled Fairness for Federal Firefighters, amended FECA. It established that, as a result of the specific exposures that routinely occur in the course of their employment, federal firefighters are at increased risk for certain types of cancers, heart disease, and lung disease. These illnesses and diseases are deemed as proximately caused by employment in federal fire protection activities. The full list of presumptive illnesses can be found in FECA Bulletin No. 23-05. Any claims by federal firefighters for these conditions will be processed by a special claims unit to streamline processing.
In cooperation with the Interior and Agriculture departments, OWCP is supporting fire personnel through this process and providing resources and training to all agency workers’ compensation contacts. While the departments have no authority to approve or deny OWCP claims, resources are available to help federal firefighters navigate the claims process.
Employees are responsible for filling out required paperwork, meeting all deadlines, and providing any requested information identified by the OWCP claims examiner. They can file a workers’ compensation claim with OWCP directly on the Department of Labor’s employees’ compensation operations and management portal.
Federal firefighters diagnosed with covered illnesses or diseases should reach out to their agency workers’ compensation program manager if they have questions or need assistance. Department and agency workers’ compensation points of contact can assist employees with understanding deadlines, explaining what is needed to file an OWCP claim, reviewing OWCP letters, providing guidance and training, and escalating issues as needed.
The Interior Department also encourages employees to report an exposure, illness, or injury in the Department’s Safety Management Information System. For further resources, visit the Interior Department Workers’ Compensation Program website.
National Firefighter Registry for Cancer
The National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), is open all U.S. firefighters, with or without cancer, no matter their length of service. It was established at the direction of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, which passed by Congress in 2018 to better understand the link between firefighting and cancer.
The registry will help researchers better understand and reduce cancer in firefighters by matching the information provided by participating firefighters with cancer diagnosis information from state cancer registries. This matching process will allow NIOSH to study the relationship between firefighting and cancer outcomes over time.
The registry is a part of understanding the possible long-term health effects of this career. We encourage anyone who has or is working in wildland fire to sign up.
In addition, the Interior Department and USDA Forest Service have begun working together, as directed by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, to conduct a comprehensive study on long-term health effects for wildland firefighters. The agencies have started the planning process for this study with NIOSH and the Department of Labor.