Weeks after the US Labor Department added coverage for cancers affecting women firefighters, all information has been deleted from the department’s website.

A report in Firehouse.com notes it took nearly three years to win presumptive workers’ compensation coverage for breast, cervical, and other cancers that firefighters who work for federal agencies may develop because of hazardous exposures on the job.

However, just weeks after the Labor Department in January 2025 added coverage for those illnesses, firefighters worry the gains may be in jeopardy after the Trump administration deleted information about the expansion of coverage for cancers that mostly affect women firefighters from a federal webpage. It is uncertain what these means for the changes introduced in the final days of the Biden administration.

“It’s really important to continue to focus on ensuring that those who devote their lives to protecting the public and communities continue to receive coverage through the special claims unit,” said Pete Dutchick, a federal firefighter and volunteer with the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.

The Labor Department’s special claims unit, established in 2022, processes all federal firefighter claims and provides a streamlined path for those with covered conditions. Wildland firefighters and advocacy groups representing them celebrated that year when federal officials moved to expedite workers’ compensation coverage of cancers tied to their jobs. It was recognition that the dangers of battling wildfires extend long after a blaze is extinguished.

The list of cancers federal officials tagged for streamlined claims processes through the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs included esophageal, colorectal, prostate, testicular, kidney, bladder, brain, lung, thyroid, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, mesothelioma, and melanoma.

But that initial jubilation soured when it became clear that breast, ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers were excluded, creating a coverage gap for more than 2,700 people, or about 16 per cent of the more than 17,000 federal wildland firefighters working for the Forest Service and the Interior Department. These are firefighters who are dispatched to federal lands, like in national forests and national parks, and sometimes assist county and state crews, as they did when fires swept into Los Angeles in January.

“At first glance, we were ecstatic,” Dutchick said. “And then we’re like, ‘Well, where are the female cancers?’”

Dutchick, who has an 8-year-old daughter, was upset. “I certainly want her to have equal protections when it comes to health if she chooses to get into a field of public service,” he said.

Then in early January 2025, as the Biden administration wound toward a close, federal officials addressed the exclusion, adding the cancers to the list in a last-minute change before Donald Trump took office.

“This policy change acknowledges the unique occupational hazards faced by women firefighters and ensures they receive the care and support they deserve,” Christopher Godfrey, the now-former director of the workers’ compensation office, said in a 6 January 2025 statement on the Labor Department’s website.

But in the early days of the Trump administration, the January press release announcing the cancer coverage expansion was deleted from the Labor Department website.

Formalizing the policy change through rulemaking will take months and support from Congress.

Firefighters point out that other countries, including Australia, already included presumptive coverage for cervical, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancers.

Recent research contributed to the agency’s inclusion of female reproductive cancers, Godfrey said. In 2023, a study determined a link between perfluorononanoic acid, a type of PFAS, and uterine cancer. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a category of chemicals that a recent study found in the protective gear worn by wildland firefighters. Additional research has also linked PFAS exposure to an increase in melanoma. A study published in September identified 12 chemicals that firefighters are exposed to on the job linked to breast cancer.

But now, it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will roll back the new coverage, leaving some federal firefighters unsure whether exposures on the job will leave them scrambling for care.

It is feared devastating cuts to the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced in April 2025 will have further damaging impacts on firefighter safety.  NIOSH programmes evaluating respirator safety are one victim of the cuts. And the National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer, which is the largest effort ever undertaken to understand and reduce risk of cancer among US firefighters is believed to be another casualty.

Many states have their introduced their own cancer reporting standards, listed on the website of the firefighters’ union IAFF. As a gold standard, Oregon has the usual list including breast cancer, plus “gynecologic cancer of the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, cervix, vagina or vulva”. But similar coverage for federally-employed female firefighters may now not exist at all.

In 2023, Spanish trade unions CC.OO, UGT and CSIC representing firefighters employed at the Andalusia Environment and Water Agency (AMAYA), won recognition that the smoke was carcinogenic, a move intended to aid diagnosis, compensation and preventive efforts.