BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2253| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2253 Author: Coto (D), et al Amended: 5/28/10 in Assembly Vote: 21 SENATE LABOR & INDUST. RELATIONS COMMITTEE : 4-1, 6/23/10 AYES: DeSaulnier, Ducheny, Leno, Yee NOES: Hollingsworth NO VOTE RECORDED: Wyland SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-4, 8/12/10 AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Leno, Price, Wolk, Yee NOES: Ashburn, Emmerson, Walters, Wyland ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 68-4, 6/2/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Workers compensation: cancer presumption SOURCE : California Association of Highway Patrolmen California Professional Firefighters CDF Firefighters Local 2881 Peace Officers Research Association of California DIGEST : This bill provides that an existing presumption for a work-related injury shall be extended to specified firefighters and police officers following termination of service for a period of three months for each year of service but not to exceed 120 months in any circumstance, commencing with the last day actually worked in the CONTINUED AB 2253 Page 2 specified capacity. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Establishes a workers' compensation system that provides benefits to an employee injured at work, irrespective of fault. This system requires all employers to secure payment of benefits by either securing the consent of the Department of Industrial Relations to self insure or by securing insurance against liability from an insurance company duly authorized by the state. 2. Provides that, for firefighters and peace officers, cancer is presumed to have arisen during the course of employment. 3. Requires the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) to find that the cancer is employment-related unless the employer proves that the cancer is not related to employment. 4. Specifies that for the presumption to apply, the safety officer must be in service at the time the cancer manifests itself, or, if the employee has separated from the employer, the statute of limitations has not expired. The statute of limitations is different for each employee, based on a formula that grants three months for each year of service to that employer, with the period commencing on the last date actually worked. 5. Provides that, regardless of the time period for the statute of limitations calculated using the three months per year of service formula, in no case shall the statute of limitations be more than five years from the date last worked by the employee for that employer. 6. Provides that the compensation that is awarded for cancer treatment includes full hospital, surgical, medical treatment, disability indemnity, and death benefits, as provided by the Division of Workers Compensation. CONTINUED AB 2253 Page 3 This bill: 1. Extends the five-year cap that modifies the three months for one year of service formula to a 10-year cap. 2. Specifies that the provision of law establishing the cancer presumption may be cited as the William Dallas Jones Cancer Presumption Act of 2009. Prior Legislation AB 128 (Coto), 2009-10 Session, would have increased the statute of limitations formula to run for each year served, and would have also removed the cap of time accrued under that formula. The bill was held under submission by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund Extension of presumption Unknown, multimillions of dollars General/ period for one type of in new costs ongoingSpecial work-related injury SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/10) California Association of Highway Patrolmen (co-source) California Professional Firefighters (co-source) CDF Firefighters Local 2881 (co-source) Peace Officers Research Association of California (co-source) Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs California Applicants' Attorneys Association California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee International Association of Fire Fighters National Peace Officers and Firefighters Benefit CONTINUED AB 2253 Page 4 Association Orange County Professional firefighters' Association Riverside Sheriffs' Association OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/16/10) Acclamation Insurance Management Services Allied Managed Care California Association of Joint Powers Authorities California Chamber of Commerce California Coalition on Workers' Compensation California Highway Patrol California Special Districts Association California State Association of Counties Cities of San Marcos, Santa Rosa, and Vista County of Orange Board of Supervisors CSAC Excess Insurance Authority (a California Joint Powers Authority) Department of Finance Department of Industrial Relations Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association League of California Cities Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Regional Council of Rural Counties ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, 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. Since the original cancer presumption statute was enacted over two decades ago, research and anecdotal information reveal that some industrially-caused cancers actually manifest themselves well-beyond the existing 60-month statute of limitations given the complex synergistic effects of multiple compound exposures, as well as the rapidly growing introduction of new chemicals and industrial compounds into our environment. Consequently, there is a critical need to strike the cap in current law. Proponents note that recent scientific developments have shown that the original statute of limitations provision is contrary to the purposes of the presumption. Several of the cancers most closely associated with the firefighters and their profession have a latency period longer than 60 CONTINUED AB 2253 Page 5 months. Proponents cite a review of "The Risk of Cancer in Firefighters" by Anne L Golden, PhD, Steven B Markowitz, PhD, and Philip J Landrigan, MD, MSc, as published in 1995 in the Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews , which found that the latency period for most of the relevant cancers associated with exposure to chemical carcinogens is likely to be at least three or four decades. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Opponents of the bill, which includes several public entities and associations of public entities, cite a 2004 WCAB ruling that held that the public employer must, in order to rebut the cancer presumption, "explicitly demonstrate that medical or scientific research has shown that there is no reasonable inference that exposure to known carcinogen or carcinogens is related to [the cancer] or causes the development of the cancer." They conclude that this standard makes it virtually impossible to rebut the presumption, and that therefore the bill makes any cancer any safety officer ever contracts compensable through the workers' compensation system. The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is also in opposition to this bill. DIR believes that this bill would be a vast expansion of the cancer presumption for fire fighters and peace officers, increasing the number of non-industrial cancer cases found to be compensable workers' compensation illnesses. DIR believes that this expansion will increase costs to the state and local agencies that employ firefighters and peace officers, creating an unduly long period of unknown liability for those agencies. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Smyth, CONTINUED AB 2253 Page 6 Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NOES: DeVore, Gaines, Logue, Niello NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Harkey, Lieu, Norby, Silva, Audra Strickland, Tran, Vacancy PQ:mw 8/16/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED