Yukon firefighters are working with the territory’s workers’ compensation board (WCB) to add seven types of cancer to the list covered by benefits, strengthening legislation that has fallen behind the rest of the country.

“We, in the fire service, now know that there is no difference between a traumatic on-scene fire death compared to an occupational death,” Alex Forrest, Canadian Trustee for the International Association of Firefighters, told media Tuesday afternoon in Whitehorse.

“It’s not one fire that kills us, it’s hundreds of fires throughout a career, and that’s killing us at a much higher level.”

Barry Blisner of the Whitehorse Fire Department met with Forrest and the WCB on Tuesday morning. He is hopeful that presumptive cancer legislation will be updated within six months.

This was Forrest’s first time in the Yukon since the original cancer coverage legislation was advocated for in 2011.

The WCB legislation covers 10 types of cancer. When the coverage legislation was introduced in 2012, Blisner said, the Yukon was the “gold standard” for coverage.

In the last several years, however, new research has shown a larger number of cancers are affecting firefighters than previously thought.

“Since 2011, this issue has literally blown up around the world, and we now have more science to show us a very tragic issue that is now coming forward,” Forrest said.

“We know now that there are many more cancers firefighters have increased risk of.”

Yukon firefighters are working to add seven types of cancer to the current list: multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and penile cancer.

Blisner said that since 2011, four Whitehorse firefighters have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Under the current legislation, they are not covered by the WCB.

He hopes the new legislation will include retroactive coverage to 2011, when the studies began to show these cancers affect firefighters, so the four diagnosed in Whitehorse can receive coverage.

WCB coverage for firefighters with occupational cancer provides the same benefits as a traumatic injury, Forrest said.

These benefits include remuneration of loss of salary and paid time off work. In the case of death, the same supports are offered to family as if the firefighter was killed at the scene of a blaze.

Blisner said the Yukon has “fallen behind” in cancer remuneration for firefighters. Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, P.E.I., Ontario and the territories have all enacted legislation including at least 14 types of cancer.

Ontario is the only province offering the entire list of coverage Yukon firefighters are asking for.

Blisner said there are approximately 300 firefighters in the territory who could be affected by this coverage change.

Yukon firefighters are asking for acknowledgment that women are part of the fire service in Canada, necessitating the inclusion of cancers affecting women. These include breast, cervical and ovarian cancer.

Forrest said he is optimistic the Yukon will make the necessary changes, based on Tuesday morning’s meeting with the WCB.

“We had a very good conversation with workers’ compensation, and they have acknowledged they have fallen behind,” Forrest said.

He is a leading expert in Canada on presumptive cancer. Firefighters are exposed to the cancer-causing carcinogens in three ways, he said: through inhalation, consumption and absorption.

While firefighting gear and occupational hygiene standards are helpful in combatting the first two risks, Forrest said, there is little that protects firefighters from absorbing carcinogens.

This is because firefighting gear is designed to breathe, enabling toxic chemicals to absorb into skin.

This problem is made worse by modern building design, which utilizes plastic as a building material more than wood and creates extra carcinogenic risk.

Forrest said firefighters are exposed to a minimum of six to seven toxic chemicals every fire, including benzine, which he called “one of the most dangerous known to society.”

The exposure to multiple chemicals compounds the risk, Forrest said.

Several days after fighting a fire, firefighters will still see shower water turning black from the massive amount of carcinogens absorbed.

There is hope that the improvement to legislation will help prevention efforts as well, with better technology and gear available to Yukon firefighters.

“The gear is meant for heat, mostly, and we can only do so much. Some of these are inherent dangers when we become a firefighter we realize that, and we sign up for it, but at the same time we want to protect our members,” Blisner said.