2009 House Bill 5284

Establish workplace smoking cancer presumption

Introduced in the House

Aug. 26, 2009

Introduced by Rep. Timothy Bledsoe (D-1)

To establish a presumption in the workers disability compensation law that if an employee gets cancer within 10 years of working for an employer who chooses to allow smoking in the workplace, then the cigarette smoke “contributed to, aggravated, or accelerated” the cancer. This would cause the employer’s workers comp insurance rates to rise. The disease would still have to be “linked to secondhand smoke by credible scientific evidence” (which suggests that this would not really be a legal presumption).

Referred to the Committee on Regulatory Reform