(a) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) Employee in fire protection activities.—The term “employee in fire protection activities” means an employee employed as a firefighter (including a wildland firefighter), paramedic, emergency medical technician, rescue worker, ambulance personnel, or hazardous material worker who—
(C)
is engaged in the prevention, control, or extinguishment of fires or response to emergency situations in which life, property, or the environment is at risk, including the prevention, control, suppression, or management of wildland fires; and
(D)
performs the activities described in subparagraph (C) as a primary responsibility of the job of the employee.
(b) Certain Illnesses and Diseased [1] Deemed to Be Proximately Caused by Employment in Fire Protection Activities.—
(1) In general.—
For a claim under this subchapter of disability or death of an employee who has been employed for not less than 5 years in aggregate as an employee in fire protection activities, an illness or disease specified on the list established under paragraph (2) shall be deemed to be proximately caused by the employment of that employee, if the employee is diagnosed with that illness or disease not later than 10 years after the last activedate [2] of employment as an employee in fire protection activities.
(2) Establishment of initial list.—There is established under this section the following list of illnesses and diseases:
(3) Additions to the list.—
(A) In general.—
(i) Periodic review.—The Secretary shall—
(I)
in consultation with the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and any advisory committee determined appropriate by the Secretary, periodically review the list established under paragraph (2); and
(II)
if the Secretary determines that the weight of the best available scientific evidence warrants adding an illness or disease to the list established under paragraph (2), as described in subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, make such an addition through a rule that clearly identifies that scientific evidence.
(C) Available expertise.—
In determining significant risk for purposes of subparagraph (B), the Secretary may accept as authoritative, and may rely upon, recommendations, risk assessments, and scientific studies (including analyses of National Firefighter Registry data pertaining to Federal firefighters) by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Toxicology Program, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.