Personal Exposure Reporting -- Your Best Protection
California Professional Firefighters' Personal Exposure Reporting (PER) system is your best defense for identifying and documenting hazardous exposure trends on the job. Whether entered online (www.peronline.org) or through the mail, CPF's PER system provides employees unmatched protection, security and confidentiality.
www.peronline.org
Why Should Firefighters Report?
Because of what they face on the job, firefighters and EMTs are at greater risk of contracting cancer, tuberculosis, and other blood-borne diseases. The cancer rate alone among firefighters has more than doubled in the last three decades.
California's cancer and tuberculosis presumption laws require that firefighters document occupational exposures to hazardous agents. In the case of cancer, the carcinogen must also have a scientific link to the form of cancer contracted. In the case of TB and other contagions, the presumptions that do exist are rebuttable, meaning the firefighter needs to have the evidence to prove exposure.
CPF's Personal Exposure Reporting System meets the linkage requirements for cancer. It meets the test for proving exposure in rebuttable presumption cases. And by documenting exposures and their effects, the PER system furthers efforts aimed at prevention.
PER and Prevention
To eliminate incidents of occupational cancer and infectious disease transmission, controlling exposure to carcinogens and infectious agents is essential. Using the PER, firefighters are facing the challenge of prevention. Working together to record on-the-job exposures, they are helping to identify when, where, and under what circumstances they are exposed to hazardous agents. Ultimately, these efforts will help us to find needed solutions to the problem of firefighter cancer and illness.
The Firefighter Personal Exposure Record is the best defense against hazardous on-the-job exposures, for today and for tomorrow. The Exposure Record is the best tool for preventing cancer and infectious diseases in the future...because firefighters deserve the best!
How to Sign Up
The California Professional Firefighters Personal Exposure Reporting system (both PER Online and the mail-in version) includes the following:
- An Entry Form which requests personal background information including name, address, fire department, and employment history. This form is used to create a participant's confidential file, tagged by social security number.
- An Exposure Report Form used to document exposure on the job. Reports are added to the participant's confidential file. The information, excluding the individual identity, is also used to build a statewide database on firefighter exposure.
All PER members have access to CPF's secure online PER system (www.peronline.org), so that exposures can be recorded immediately and with the assurance of security and privacy.
Costs
CPF's Personal Exposure Reporting is available for individuals or entire fire departments for annual fee of $15 or $20 per member per year, depending on the type of reporting form you choose to use.
Each includes access to CPF's secure online recording system:
- $15/year - 8.5 by 11 inch pad of forms. You pay the postage to mail them to us
- $20/year - postcard size forms with carbon copy. Postage pre-paid.
YOU MAY ALREADY BE PRE-PAID!
Certain departments and CPF local unions cover the cost of PER for their members. Click HERE to download a list of locals and departments that pay for PER. If your department is on the list, simply register online or by mail and you're in!
Contact:
For more information or to enroll in the Personal Exposure Record System, go to www.peronline.org, or contact California Professional Firefighters at:
1780 Creekside Oaks, Suite 200
Sacramento, California 95833
Phone: 916-921-9111
Fax: 916-921-1106
E-mail: PER@cpf.org