The New Mexico State Legislature will hear a bill this month on the subject of "Fire Fighter Occupational Diseases" which if passed would provide an important legal protection for professional fire fighters. I know that union or legislative news can seem irrelevant to our daily lives and I also know firsthand that often it takes a personal experience to make a person aware of policy matters.

A few years ago, I had one of these events myself. I was piping on Engine 12 and had a patient unexpectedly cough a productive cough into my face while I was taking vitals. She was unclear about her TB status, was living on the street, appeared sick, etc., and we decided to be conservative and fill out an exposure report. The point isn't whether I was being overly cautious, but what happened a few days later.

A couple of days later I was called back to Employee Health to go over my test results. I was told that I was positive for Hep C, just like that, and that because I was positive on the date of the exposure I wasn't covered by workman's comp. The assumption was I had contracted the disease on my days off and not through work at some earlier time. I could follow up with my personal doctor.

It was a horrible moment. I immediately started thinking about liver disease, dialysis, liver transplants--we've all seen these patients. I also felt so stigmatized, so embarrassed and unable to tell anyone about my diagnosis. I was afraid of "taking the disease home" to anyone in my personal life. Obviously I’d fallen through a crack and was on my own.
 
I went to my doctor and had the definitive test for Hep C--a viral load test. Another few days later I got my results and happily for me, my results were completely negative. My doctor said either I had contracted and recovered completely from Hep C--unlikely--or I'd simply been exposed and been fortunate enough to resist infection sometime in the past. I should consider the Employee Health test result a "false positive." I'd gotten myself so worked up that my doctor had to say this over and over again to me before the good news sunk in.

It was only later on that I started thinking that I was probably not the only fire fighter to have this experience (and that I was very lucky not to be facing life with Hep C). I started asking questions. I spoke with our local, the local in Santa Fe (where I used to live), and I learned more about this from the International. I found that we are operating here in New Mexico without appropriate protection, period, no question about it.
 
"Presumptive causation" or "presumptive illness" laws have been enacted in 42 states across the country. Contextualized the right way--our service to the public should encourage the public to protect us should we become ill as a result of doing our job—these measures pass. New Mexico is one of the eight states without this type of legal protection for fire fighters.

 As I said, I brought this up to the union a long time ago. As I understand it, what's happened between then and now—now being the time when we have a bill that really could be passed and made into law—is two significant voices for fire fighters in this state are making themselves heard at the local and state level.

 One of those voices is of course our Local 244 which represents over 800 professional fire fighters in Albuquerque Fire and Bernalillo County Fire with Diego Arencon at the helm as General President. Early on in his presidency, Diego committed the considerable resources and political power of the Local 244 to this campaign. Our most significant contribution is in the power of our numbers and the demonstrated support we have from the public and elected officials.

 The Local 244's partner in this campaign is the New Mexico Professional Fire Fighters Association, of which AFD's Emily Kane is President. Many of us at AFD are not familiar with the mission of the NMPFFA, which is to represent all the IAFF organizations in the state: 17 unions with a total 1,450 members. When I came to understand that Governor Richardson himself appointed Emily to the Workman's Comp Advisory Council after knowing her for years through her NMPPFA and Local 244 work, I started to understand how strong a political voice professional fire fighters now have in New Mexico. Diego and Emily asked me last fall to tell my story about my Hep C scare before the Workman's Comp Advisory Council to "put a face on the issue." It was frankly a bit unnerving to speak immediately after a gentleman who voiced the concern that the public might be paying the bill for conditions contracted off-duty. I think my story demonstrated that we simply can't always pinpoint the exact time of an exposure and argues that we're worth covering for conditions most likely related to our working conditions. Diego and Emily have asked me to tell my story again this month in Santa Fe before legislative committees considering our bill, so I'll be doing that.

Diego, Emily and others admit this bill may not be the perfect piece of legislation. Their opinion is that laws can be amended and expanded--this is an important first step to get our foot in the door. If you would take the time to ask your Senator and Representative to support this bill, it might make a big difference on the outcome of the vote on this bill, and change the circumstances for you if you ever receive positive test results sitting in one of the Employee Health exam rooms like I did.

If you're willing to follow up, and you don't know where to begin, here is the link to find your Senator and Representative by your home zipcode+four:

www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislatorsearch

Here's text to cut and paste into your message, to make this process really easy:
 
I am a professional fire fighter with the Albuquerque Fire Department. I am writing to ask you to support Senate Bill 303 on Fire fighter Occupational Diseases sponsored by Senator Michael S. Sanchez. The passage of this bill will provide important protections for me and my family should I become ill with certain job-related diseases or conditions. Both my International Association of Fire Fighters Local 244 and the New Mexico Professional Fire Fighters Association support this bill. Thank you,