Albuquerque Fire Rescue Lieutenant Paramedic Mark Jaquez had been on duty with the department for nine years when, in 2017, he received an unexpected diagnosis: colorectal cancer that required surgery.
His medical team removed 18 polyps and discovered that the growth had narrowly avoided a critical junction. If it had spread just a fraction of an inch further, he recalled, he would have needed a colostomy bag for the rest of his life.
Jaquez, a U.S. Air Force veteran, had spent his entire adult life fighting fires, so the cancer’s origin was no mystery to him. He knew that virtually everything around him — from the oil slicks on the tarmac to the clothes on his back — contained synthetic chemicals that could emit harmful carcinogens when ignited.
A young colleague diagnosed with testicular cancer around the same time easily obtained workers’ compensation for the duration of his treatment, Jaquez recalled, so he went to his union representative to begin the process himself. Before long, though, his union came back with difficult news from the city: Under New Mexico law, firefighters with colorectal cancer cannot receive workers’ compensation unless they’ve been employed for 10 years…