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• Council OKs disability plan for firefighters with cancer 

From now on, any Providence firefighter diagnosed with cancer will be presumed to have contracted the cancer on the job, and will be given a generous accidental disability pension, assuming they can prove that they do not smoke, use drugs or abuse alcohol, under a measure passed by the City Council last night. . . .

The fire chief and the firefighters union have made the case that firefighters are exposed to numerous carcinogens and have greater risk of developing blood, lung, lymphatic and skin cancer than the rest of the population. . . .

Firefighters would have to submit to annual physical exams administered by doctors hired by the city to prove that they do not use tobacco products, abuse alcohol or use illegal drugs, and sign affidavits stating that they have not used those substances.

Firefighters who use those substances now have a clean slate going forward, but will have to prove on their next annual physical that they are not using them anymore.

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