Editorial
Firefighters in NSW are automatically covered if they develop cancers. Not so members of NSW Police who investigate fires. They have to prove the dangerous work caused their illness.
It is a ridiculous anomaly laid bare by the Herald’s Riley Walter in his heart-wrenching article tracing the experience of crime scene investigators Mark Bransgrove and Stephen Horn. Both died from bladder cancer after many decades of service.
Bransgrove worked in crime scene investigations for 17 years; Horn spent 44 years in the job.
NSW Police overhauled its policies in the early 2000s and introduced additional protective equipment for forensics officers. By that stage, Bransgrove and Horn had spent decades unaware that their work was slowly killing them.
Now a report by Sydney occupational hygienist Alan Rogers has found Bransgrove’s cancer was likely to have been a result of his sustained exposure to carcinogenic fire residue. Horn, the state’s longest serving crime scene investigator, had died of cancer a year before his younger colleague, but his death has not been deemed to have been caused by his decades of exposure.
Two other cases involving former colleagues with similar diagnoses point to a cancer cluster within NSW Police’s fire investigators. Rogers concluded that due to exposure to carcinogens and toxic residue, the risk of firefighters developing bladder cancer was 16 per cent higher than for a member of the public: Rogers estimated it was up to 700 per cent higher for police fire investigators.
Under the state’s Workers Compensation Act, paid and unpaid firefighters are presumed to have developed bladder cancer if they served on-scene for at least 15 years. There is even a list of 22 cancers they are presumed to have developed due to their work, including exposure to chemicals and toxic residue.
But presumptive cancer laws do not cover police officers tasked with examining the same crime scenes as firefighters. Unlike firefighters, police officers are required to prove that their work caused their illness.
An unintended consequence of the gaping holes in NSW laws designed to protect police first responders has left their grieving families out of pocket, without proper recognition of the cost of their loved ones’ service and for some, in the depths of suffering, the burden of proof is an insurmountable obstacle.
Last month, Bransgrove was the first forensic officer to have died from his work to have his name added to the NSW Police’s wall of remembrance. The recognition is both symbolic and legally consequential. The Police Association of NSW has now joined families calling for amendments to the Workers Compensation Act.
A spokesperson for Work Health and Safety Minister Sophie Cotsis said the government was open to hearing from workers, families and unions.
But there is no need to consult: the obvious and tragic truth is that NSW Police fire investigators continue to be exposed to the same dangers as firefighters without the same safeguards.
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