Firefighters dealing with certain cancers will have more time to file for accidental disability retirement benefits under a bill signed into law late Wednesday by Gov. Cuomo.
The bill extends the filing deadline to five years, up from two. It will retroactively apply to all disability retirement applications filed since Jan. 1, 2014, and impact those with cancer affecting the lymphatic, digestive, hematological, urinary, neurological, breast, reproductive, or prostate systems.
Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn) and Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) in a bill sponsors’ memo said the increased use in recent decades of plastics and other chemical products like flame-retardant materials, has resulted in more cases of cancer for firefighters.