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Book chapter
The History and Impact of Disability Law for Firefighters
At Work in the World: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health
2012
Abstract
The development of presumptive disability laws pertaining to occupationally-acquired diseases emanated from the application of the workers’ compensation “injury by accident” prerequisite. Presumptive disability policy decisions react to the fact that unlike injuries, occupationally-acquired diseases are more difficult to prove as work-related. Due to the latency of diseases such as cancer, and the difficulty in establishing causation when disease manifestation may take decades, society made decisions to care for people whose occupations put their lives at risk. The creation of such policies began with the United States military, and subsequently expanded to first responders (police, firefighters). We present herein a concise history of presumptive disability law and an exploration of definitional and legislative issues that impact occupationally-acquired disease. Within this analysis, firefighters are used as a high-risk occupational group exemplar. We explore the prevalence, nature, and diversity of state-based firefighter presumptive disability laws within the United States and conclude by examining contemporary policy issues.
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Details
- Title
- The History and Impact of Disability Law for Firefighters
- Creators
- Jennifer A Taylor - Drexel University, Environmental and Occupational HealthJ P Phillips - Mississippi State UniversityB L Hall - Washington University in St. Louis
- Publication Details
- At Work in the World: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health
- Conference
- At Work in the World: Proceedings of the 4th Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health, 4th (San Francisco, California, United States, 19 Jun 2010 - 22 Jun 2010)
- Publisher
- University of California Press
- Number of pages
- 5
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Environmental and Occupational Health
- Identifiers
- 991021487414904721