The New Mexico Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on Monday unanimously voted to advance a bill that would for the first time extend workers’ compensation coverage to firefighters diagnosed with a number of cancers.

House Bill 128 would “presume” that many cancers are caused by a firefighter’s line of work. For the first time, it would extend coverage to lung, ovarian and cervical cancers.

The bill mirrors recent federal legislation and would standardize requirements for when workers’ compensation covers a New Mexico firefighter’s cancer diagnosis. Currently, state law has disparate requirements depending on the type of cancer: Bladder cancer is covered after 12 years of service; breast cancer is covered after five years of service if it’s diagnosed before the age of 40 and the firefighter does not have a genetic predisposition for breast cancer; testicular cancer after five years of service if it’s also diagnosed before the age of 40 and if the firefighter has not used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone.

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The bill passed the New Mexico House of Representatives on Feb. 10 with a 61-1 vote

Albuquerque firefighters have previously told Source NM that they faced challenges in receiving coverage for their cancer diagnoses. The city denied coverage to one firefighter for his colorectal cancer because he had worked for the department for nine years — state law mandates that firefighters must be employed for 10 years to get workers’ compensation for colorectal cancer.

Emergency responders who spoke in support of the bill said the current law created an unfair system in which firefighters with cancer must prove that their job caused their illness.

“I have served ABQ fire for nearly 27 years. In this time I have been exposed to countless carcinogens,” Albuquerque Fire Rescue Lieutenant Mike Sedillo told the committee Monday evening. “On Dec.17 I was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer…the burden of proof is on me to prove the cancer is linked to firefighting, something every firefighter in the country, as well as my oncologist, confirms.”

One of the committee members agreed and said the law that’s been on the books since 2009 is clearly not doing enough.

“When we talk about firefighters in New Mexico, we’re talking about people who represent the very best of who we are,” bill co-sponsor Senator Cindy Nava (D-Albuquerque) said at the hearing. “For too many years, the system we have in place has failed.”