Firefighters face many risks on the job, but a lesser-known danger is their increased exposure to “forever chemicals,” also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
PFAS are found in a wide range of products, including shampoo, food packaging, furniture and dental floss. They have been dubbed “forever chemicals” because of their incredible resistance to degradation, allowing them to accumulate in water, soil and even living organisms.
Due to the widespread prevalence of PFAS in everyday products, nearly everyone is exposed to these chemicals — but firefighters often face increased exposure due to the occupational hazards they face in their job. This is particularly concerning, since exposure to PFAS has been associated with many adverse health effects, including cancer, endocrine disease, harm to reproductive health and altered immune response.
“When firefighters respond to a house fire, things that are made of PFAS like carpet or upholstery can go up in flames, leading to PFAS in the smoke and in their working environment,” Reagan Conner, a University of Arizona researcher working within the Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study, said. “There’s also some evidence to suggest that firefighters’ gear might be a source of PFAS exposure,” Conner said, referencing the addition of PFAS materials to firefighter gear for its water and oil-repellant qualities.
To understand what factors might most strongly impact PFAS levels in firefighters, Conner and her team at the FFCCS surveyed a cohort of U.S. firefighters to collect data on their demographics, lifestyle behaviors, occupational exposures and respective fire agency policies. They also measured PFAS concentrations in the blood of the surveyed firefighters, with the goal of identifying factors and behaviors that could result in reduced PFAS levels in firefighters.
Conner explained that the results of the study, which was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, serve as a crucial first step for designing strategies to mitigate PFAS exposure within the fire service.
Notably, the study found that plasma and blood donation resulted in reduced PFAS levels among the surveyed firefighters. “PFAS tends to bind to the serum albumin in your blood,” Conner explained. “The idea is that when you donate plasma, you’re able to flush the bad stuff out and you’re making room for new blood cells to come in.”
Researchers also found that firefighters that regularly practiced on-scene gear decontamination, or washdown, had reduced baseline PFAS levels. “With washdown, the firefighters will take about two minutes to wash down their gear with something as simple as Dawn soap, a brush and some water to reduce exposure,” Conner said. “That was something we found had a significant association with lower PFAS levels.”
Beyond serving as a starting point for designing intervention strategies to mitigate firefighters’ exposure to PFAS, Conner hopes that in the long-term, this research will also encourage policy change regarding PFAS regulation. “By studying and determining the exposures to PFAS, our work could eventually be used by lawmakers to enact policy change,” Conner said.
At the local level, Conner described how rewarding it has been to see fire departments enforce changes as a result of the FFCCS study and similar research.
“On-scene washdowns are not the NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] standard, which is what all fire departments across the country have to abide by, but even since our results were published, we’ve seen fire departments posting infographics and videos talking about how to do it and why it’s important,” Conner said. “It’s been exciting to see that even small interventions have made such a big impact already, especially because from our research, we know how big of a difference it makes.”
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