www.firemensmemorial.com
Protecting firefighters from PFAS Poisons that harm people and pets should be banned
M
ichigan has a long history with flame retardants.
In 1973, cattle across the state were accidentally contaminated with a fire retardant called Polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, when workers at a factory that manufactured the product mistakenly placed bags of the highly toxic chemical in a shipment of livestock nutritional supplements.
The flame-retardant chemical was mixed with cattle feed and distributed to farmers across the state. Tens of thousands of cattle and poultry got sick and were exterminated and buried. The chemical plant that produced the contaminant closed in 1978, and the site was placed on the federal Superfund list five years later because of contamination in the Pine River, which abuts the property, and in groundwater. Cleanup was still ongoing as of a couple years ago.
While the PBB chemical flame retardants of the 1970’s was found to make cattle and poultry sick, other toxic flame retardants were manufactured and sold to protect people, including firefighters, from being burned if materials caught fire. As a result, cancer is the number one killer of America’s firefighters. In 2010, a NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
studies about 30,000 firefighters from across the country. The results showed that firefighters have higher rates of the digestive, oral, respiratory, and urinary systems cancers than the general U.S. population, including being twice as likely to develop testicular or prostate cancer, as well as nonHodgkin Lymphoma. Among female firefighters, the rate of breast cancer is six times the national average.
“Firefighters are some of the best advocates for policy change regarding these products. It is time to ban the use of toxic chemicals to create consumer goods and to ban the use of toxic chemicals to extinguish fires caused by the burning of these consumer goods”
The adverse health effects are now known to include cancer, neurodevelopmental and reproductive toxicity. Studies show these chemicals build up in human bodies over time and do not break down even after being diluted and spread out in nature. So what is being done? In 2017, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued guidance
to manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, and consumers to protect the health of consumers, especially children, from exposure to organohalogen flame retardant chemicals found in infant or toddler products, upholstered furniture, mattresses and mattress pads, and plastic casings of electronics. In 2018, the US Congress passed a bipartisan bill in 2018 called the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act creating a national registry for firefighters diagnosed with cancer. An organization called Safer States saferstates.org reports that there are 44 new policies in 14 states and more in the works across the country as people take action to protect themselves, their children, firefighters and even their pets from being exposed to these chemicals.
Firefighters should be able to focus on saving lives without fear of illness and cancer caused from their work. It’s not too much to ask.
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