By David Reuter, Public Information Officer, Surprise, Arizona
May 13, 2002

It was 1990 when Joan Shafer won her first bid for political office - pulling in a landslide vote to become Surprise, Arizona's first councilwoman. But it was a bittersweet victory. Four months before she took office, Shafer's long time husband, Richard, a 21-year veteran of the Phoenix Fire Department, lost his fight with - what doctors believed to be job-induced - lung cancer. "I knew what was coming," Shafer said softly, "when I saw him cough up black phlegm for days after fighting a bad fire."

What she didn't expect is that medical claims for the 60-year-old retired fire captain and arson investigator would be repeatedly denied by Worker's Compensation. So for more than a decade, Shafer has taken her personal battle public: Brandishing her political clout on behalf of firefighters statewide. "I didn't want some other firefighter's family going through what I went through," said the outspoken Shafer, now a third-term mayor of one of Arizona's fastest growing cities.

Support for Bill Sought

In 1992, armed with doctors' reports she paid for herself, Shafer broached the Legislature with a proposal to amend Worker's Compensation laws to recognize cancer as an occupational disease of firefighters, opening the door for firefighters to receive compensation for job-related cancer, and/or surviving family members to obtain death benefits. Legislators nixed it, requiring instead that cities provide firefighters with cancer insurance. "The insurance didn't satisfy me," she said. "It didn't address disability or death." Several subsequent attempts died, as well, but Shafer didn't give up.

In 1999, she found sponsorship - and support - for a bill rising from 66 percent to 80 percent, the benefits paid to the surviving spouses of Public Safety Personnel.

And, finally, in 2001, the State Legislature voted unanimously to support the Shafer-proposed "presumptive cancer" bill amending Worker's Compensation statutes to include any disease, infirmity, condition or impairment of a firefighter's health that is caused by cancer and results in total or partial disability or death, is presumed to be an occupational disease. Furthermore, it spelled out specific cancers encountered by firefighters: brain, bladder, rectal, colon, lymphoma, leukemia, Aden carcinoma or mesothelioma, and extended benefits to retired firefighters up to age 65.

"It's of enormous consequence, and Joan's actions in this were pivotal," said Chris Medrea, a long-time firefighter and president of the Professional Firefighters of Arizona. "We could not have succeeded without her. Joan Shafer made the difference."

Dave Gore, lobbyist for the Professional Firefighters of Arizona, agreed. "This legislation was needed for a very, very long time and Joan Shafer was the driving force behind it."

Governor Signs Bill

On May 31, 2001, Shafer drove to the downtown Capitol Building — past a boarded up building where her husband once fought a dangerous fire - to watch first-hand as Arizona Gov. Jane D. Hull signed the bill into law, making Arizona the 18th state to provide such benefits for firefighters.

"I made Richard a promise that I would live to see the day when firefighters would have this," said the 72-year-old mayor, her eyes resting on the picture and mementos of Richard carefully arranged on the credenza in her City Hall office. "I call it a protective blanket over them.

But Shafer isn't finished fighting.

There have been about 50 Phoenix firefighters who have developed cancer in the past 10 to 12 years, she said, and some of those cancers aren't included in the bill. They are the reason Shafer plans to ask Arizona's legislators to strengthen the law. And, she wants to see to it that members of her "firefighter family" nationwide are protected as well. "I want to see to it that every state covers their firefighters," she said. Thirty-eight states currently offer heart and lung presumption laws for firefighters, while 20 states recognize cancer presumption, and eight recognize certain infectious diseases as directly related to firefighting and emergency medical activities.

"We've all heard that second-hand smoke kills," said Shafer, whose city just recently outlawed smoking in public places. "Other mayors need to realize that we are sending our firefighters out into second hand smoke everyday and it's our responsibility to see that they are covered by state industrial if they contract cancer — just as if they had broken their leg in the line of duty."

Protective gear isn't enough, she said, heading off the argument she hears most.

Despite the apparatus worn by firefighters, toxicants can still be absorbed through the skin and, when moving around in a burning building with zero visibility, masks can get knocked off, thus leaving the firefighters unprotected from the fumes. "How can we sleep nights if we don't take care of our employees?" Shafer asks.

Advice for Mayors

Shafer has the following suggestions for mayors who want to get involved:

1. Contact state representatives and let them know you support a federal law that would provide thousands of federal employees in fire service activities with protections that are similar to those that cover municipal firefighters in many states.

2. Gather plenty of facts on how smoke inhalation can affect firefighters, contact your local firefighters union for support, then present your case to state legislators.

3. Consider passing a City Council resolution in support of benefits for firefighters.

Every year Shafer attends a memorial service for firefighters who have died in the line of duty. As part of the service, a bell is rung then the name of a deceased firefighter is read. "There's one name I know will never be read and I know what killed him. I have the proof," she said.

"Richard will never be recognized as having died in the line of duty and I'll never get the amount that goes along with that, but I want to see to it that someone else will, and I want to see to it that every firefighter who dies as a result of job-induced cancer has a ring of the bell."