Two local fire departments are leading the effort to pass a state law that would offer increased cancer screening to firemen as fire communities across the nation grapple with elevated cancer rates.
One of Flower Mound’s firemen testified before a House committee about the proposed law, while the leadership of Irving’s fire department is raising the alert about its importance. The bill is the Wade Cannon Act, also known as HB 198. The proposed law is named after a Flower Mound fireman who died in 2022 at age 33 after his colon cancer was detected too late to be stopped.
The law states, “A political subdivision that employs firefighters shall offer an occupational cancer screening to each firefighter at no cost to the firefighter in the fifth year of the firefighter’s employment and once every three years following the initial screening.”
It also mandates that the screenings must be confidential and check for colorectal, prostate (if applicable), lung, and brain cancer.
“Unfortunately, Wade was too young for our health insurance to cover his cancer screenings. At 31, you go in for a colonoscopy screening, your insurance tends to deny it. They screen at 45. So, Cannon was caught in a weird situation between health insurance and worker’s comp,” Tim Mackling, who had worked with Cannon in Flower Mound, testified before a House subcommittee, according to Fox 7.
Others shared this sentiment in the industry.
“Cancer has plagued the fire service for generations. So much so that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified firefighter occupational exposure as a Group 1 carcinogen, placing firefighting on par with tobacco and benzene. While the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) works with industry leading medical professionals and scientists to come up with solutions to mitigate our exposure to carcinogens, there are steps we can take now,” Brian Becker, president of Irving Firefighters, told The Dallas Express.
He said one of these steps should include passing HB 198.
Becker reinforced this, noting, “Catching certain cancers early significantly improves outcomes, and testing is far less expensive than late-stage cancer treatment.”
To his point, the five-year survival rate for colorectal cancer is around 90% when caught early, according to data from the American Cancer Society. He concluded that this bill is not a solution to the cancer problem but a “step in the right direction.”
More than two in three firemen are diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, according to data from the International Association of Fire Fighters. The fire service has a 2x elevated risk of being diagnosed with a wide range of cancers that include everything from mesothelioma to testicular cancer.
Anti-PFAS activist Diane Cotter, who sprang to national attention for fighting for the removal of carcinogenic PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) from firemen’s turnout gear after her fireman husband Paul Cotter was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in 2014, weighed in.
Speaking to DX, Cotter denounced the “corporate interests” that she believes have held firefighters “hostage” and allowed their gear to be contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. Then, she pivoted.
“I am elated to see the work being done in Texas to obtain the screenings for firefighters, whose early detection will save their lives,” she said.
She commended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for suing PFAS manufacturers. She noted a report on the issue that she would soon send to President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
State Rep. Ben Bumgarner (R-Flower Mound) filed the bill in the fall of 2024. This is his second attempt at passing the bill. A prior attempt from the previous legislative session did not clear the Senate.
“It was a timing issue. It was. It was heard later on in the session. And this time around, we had a low bill number. And it’s going to be one of the first bills heard over in the Senate from the House side. So, I feel really good about it,” Bumgarner said, per Fox 7.
In addition to Mackling, numerous other fire community representatives testified before the House Subcommittee on County & Regional Government on March 10. However, the bill faces funding challenges. Cancer screenings are not cheap, and some fire representatives were worried about their jurisdiction’s ability to cover it.
“I’m a small [emergency services district], West Texas, lowest taxing entities. Right now, there’s 26 bills that are going to target the way we do ad valorem taxing. And I think it’s one of those things that I think it’s a great idea. Phenomenal. I think we need it, but I’m concerned of how I’m going to pay for that,” Chief Roger Esparza with the El Paso County ESD #2 told the committee, Fox reported.
Echoing Becker, Bumgarner believes the bill can bring savings and protect health.
“Preventive care is so much cheaper than what it is for costs of workman’s comp., occupational therapy. These guys can’t come back to work, death benefits in the … term that they pass away, and just the cost of savings on having to replace that institutional knowledge and the firefighter itself,” Bumgarner said, Fox reported.