Jeff Sneller was just five years into his dream career as a firefighter when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Sneller was the sole provider for a wife in college and two kids, but missed months from work to receive chemotherapy.
“To think of that while fighting cancer and with two kids that you’ve got to take care of, that was extremely stressful,” he said.
He was able to keep his job thanks to support from his colleagues, including a fundraiser at the department, but he knows he could have been forced to give up his career.
Sneller doesn’t know the cause of his diagnosis, or the two he’s had since, but research in recent years has found firefighters face higher risks of cancer than most people.
Since October, the state has made it easier to help firefighters recover lost wages when they have to miss work for cancer treatment. It does not help him, but Sneller said that’s a huge step in the right direction.
“That would have definitely had the ability, you know, to remove the stress of ‘oh my God, the mortgage, oh my God, health insurance, how are we going to pay for this or that?” said Sneller, now a fire lieutenant in Manchester.
“You can really focus more on how your family’s doing and your health and your treatment,” he said.
The state first created a Firefighters Cancer Relief Program in 2017 to help offset wages lost because of cancer treatments.
Peter Brown, president of the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association, said that benefit “woefully fell short of what we needed,” so the union kept pushing to expand it.
Brown said that since the law took effect Oct. 1, placing $5 million of new money as part of the bill into the firefighter’s cancer relief fund, about 10 firefighters have applied for aid. He said he believes more are pending based on their date of diagnosis.
About whether the fund has enough to sustain possible claims, Brown said all involved knew that it would need more money in the future.
The thought, he said, was “Let’s get the fund up and running, let’s get the firefighters the help they need,” and get the claims experience.
“This initial seed money was to get us up and running; once we see what kinds of claims are [received] we should be able to forecast how the next 5, ten years are going to go,” Brown said. “There’s going to be a lot of thing talked about over the next couple of years.”
Firefighters now get benefits similar to workers compensation. It’s also presumed that any qualifying cancer — including those affecting the brain or the skeletal, digestive, endocrine, respiratory, lymphatic, reproductive, urinary, or hematological systems — were caused by firefighting, making it harder to deny someone benefits.
Firefighters have to get a physical examination after joining a department that found no signs or risks of cancer in order to be eligible, have had an annual physical, and they must not have used tobacco for at least 15 years before a diagnosis.
“After many years, we’re finally taking responsibility as a community and as a state,” Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury and co-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, said in a statement. “We expect firefighters to protect our homes and our families, yet we’ve never been willing to protect them and care for them when they got sick.”
Sneller has been diagnosed twice more with cancer since the first bout, once for a different type of testicular cancer and then for skin cancer. Both times, he was able to treat the cancer with surgery. Sneller does not qualify for the new benefit because his cancer diagnosis pre-dated the law.
Now he advocates cancer awareness within his own department and across the profession.
“It is talked about, probably not enough,” he said.
Brown agrees, saying the union has spent at least a decade on the issue. That includes finally getting lawmakers to approve the 2017 program and expand the benefits this year.
“The cancer risk is something that kind of snuck up on a lot of people and I’d say maybe a lot of people aren’t fully aware of that issue,” he said.
His focus now is on changing policies to reduce cancer risks for firefighters. That includes trying to eliminate the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
“When I first spoke with Jeff about his three separate battles with cancer, I was immediately impressed with his tenacity and ability to find purpose in something so formidable,” said Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, a Fairfield firefighter, and on the Legislative Committee for IAFF Local 1426.
“Knowing we have him to support and look out for other firefighters diagnosed with cancer through his work with the Firefighter Cancer Support Network brings both comfort and appreciation,” she said. “We are lucky to not only have Jeff as a member of the fire service, but also as an advocate and educator on arguably the most critical topic related to firefighting today.”
Connecticut has banned the use of PFAS in fire suppression foams, but the chemical is still used to treat the protective gear many firefighters wear. Brown’s pushing to end the use of the chemical.
Firefighters are also constantly trying to educate their colleagues, and department officials, on best practices to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals while on the scene of a fire.
“The battle’s not over, we’re going to continue working,” Brown said.
