Firefighter cancer presumption in North Dakota
North Dakota presumes a cancer tied to firefighter exposure came from the job, but the rule starts only at 5 years of service.
The law is N.D. Cent. Code § 65-01-15.1. Workers' comp uses this law.
Presumed means the law assumes your job caused the cancer, so your employer has to show it came from something else. Workers' comp (workers' compensation) is the insurance that pays medical bills and part of your lost pay when work makes you sick.
Conditions under North Dakota's law
- Your service lasted at least 5 years.
- The rule covers only full-time paid firefighters, so volunteers don't qualify.
- Death, or total or partial disability, must result from the cancer.
- You must have passed a medical exam, and it must have found nothing that pointed to the cancer.
- Unless a doctor confirms every year that you've been tobacco-free for the past two years, you must not use it.
- A diagnosis must come within 2 years after you leave the job, or within 5 years once your service passed the 10-year mark.
Your employer is allowed to claim something other than the job caused your cancer, and that challenge must use your medical exam results.
Questions about your diagnosis, your service record or your deadline go to the claims line: +1 833 853 0496
Cancers North Dakota's law covers
A cancer qualifies if exposure on duty caused it, through smoke, fumes, or toxic chemicals, while you worked as a full-time paid firefighter.
Among the cancers included are:
- Bladder cancer
- Brain cancer
- Breast cancer
- Colon or rectal cancer
- Esophagus cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Leukemia
- Liver cancer
- Lung cancer
- Mesothelioma
- Multiple myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Ovarian, cervical or uterine cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Skin cancer, melanoma included
- Stomach cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Throat or mouth cancer
- Thyroid cancer
In North Dakota, how do you file a workers' comp claim for cancer as a firefighter?
- Put it in writing to your department: you have cancer and you believe the job caused it. Keep one copy for yourself.
- Submit your claim through your employer's insurer or to the North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI), and name the law that applies (N.D. Cent. Code § 65-01-15.1) on your form.
- Put together your diagnosis, the dates you were hired and served, any physical exam results, and records of fires and exposures.
- Start soon. Workers' comp claims have time limits for telling your employer and for filing, and some are short.