The Alberta Government has taken a giant step forward in recognizing the occupational health hazards associated with fighting fires and local firefighters are among those praising the action.

Premier Rachel Notley announced measures today that will ensure firefighters who contract ovarian and cervical will receive workers' compensation benefits and support. The minimum exposure period will be 10 years for those cancers. The government also reduced the minimum exposure period to 10 years from 20 years for compensation for testicular cancer.

Derek Orr, president of the Cochrane Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 4819, was present for the announcement and says the Alberta government is showing leadership by addressing the issue and catching up with other Canadian jurisdictions who have adopted similar measures.

"We've been way behind other provinces as far as a lot of our WCB coverage and I think this government is very proactive in trying to bring them up-to-date."

"The Alberta Firefighters Association, which is one voice for all the Alberta locals, has been lobbying for this for some time. It's very important because cancer is the number one killer of firefighters by a long shot."

It also touches close to home.

"We had a female firefighter in our department a couple of years ago who contracted breast cancer and had to leave the job. At that time, breast cancer was the only cancer recognized as presumptive. She still had to fight to get a WCB claim. So this announcement hits home for us."

The change in the regulations recognizes what has long been established and complements measures being taken to lower the risk of cancer.

Many firefighters start their career young and it's not top of mind, but that's changing.

"Not a lot of us think about the long-term effects and that's part of the culture shift. Years ago, you came back from a fire and you wore your gear all dirty and it was a badge of honour," says Orr. "Now, we almost want our firefighters changing on the scene and not even bringing that back to the hall.

"They've shown that the carcinogens we get on our gear and bring back with us and sit in our bunker room can off-gas for days after a fire. Now we bag and send out all our gear for cleaning. It's an education for the members."

MLAs readily recognized how out-of-date the regulations were while meeting with legislative members of the AFFA in November. Some even listed off the classic hits at the time of the last review, says Orr.

"We were speaking to a lot of the MLAs and apparently Alberta's WCB had not been reviewed for a long time." 

Orr is also pleased to see the timeline changed for firefighters contracting testicular cancer.

"It seemed ridiculous to say that a guy who started his job at 25 and is now 35 would have to be on the job another 10 years before it being considered job-related when all the evidence shows it's definitely job-related even after 10 years."

"That's a big one for guys."

The government is also removing the expiry date of the regulation.

Alberta has a total of 14,000 full-time, part-time, casual and volunteer firefighters.