Firefighting gear contains ‘forever chemicals,’ report concludes
By Erin Blakemore | The Washington Post | June 18, 2023
Read the full article by Erin Blakemore (The Washington Post)
"Firefighters’ turnout gear — the heavy clothing they don before fighting a fire — is essential protective equipment. But the textiles that make the clothing fireproof carry hazards of their own. A May report published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concludes that “forever chemicals” known as PFAS — some linked to cancer — are present in textiles commonly used in the gear.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are commonly used in industrial products, earning their everlasting status because they break down slowly, or not at all, in the environment. In recent years, the chemicals have been identified in everything from drinking water to food wrappings, and PFAS exposure has been linked to kidney, ovarian and other cancers.
PFAS exposure is thought to be common in firefighters, who have long fought fires with PFAS-laden foam and whose profession is associated with higher blood serum levels of PFAS and higher cancer risk than non-firefighters."
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