MASSACHUSETTS FIREFIGHTERS dedicate their lives to protecting the public. When you call 911, firefighters are at your door within four minutes. They don’t ask you to wait until they are ready to fight your fire. They don’t tell you that they might not have quite enough time to get to your fire. They come right away, and they stay until the job is done and you are safe.
Today, Massachusetts firefighters and the public are not safe. We are all contaminated with PFAS, a class of chemicals that are widely used in the fire service and commerce—and firefighters have higher levels than the general population. And so, firefighters are asking legislators to act quickly to pass legislation currently bottled up in the House Ways and Means Committee dealing with PFAS filed by Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro and Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan of Stow.
Even at low levels, PFAS can be toxic, causing several types of cancer, immunosuppression, liver damage, thyroid disruption, and reproductive problems. In an interview with National Public Radio. Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said: “I don’t know of an organ system they don’t affect.”
PFAS are in the blood of 99 percent of Americans that have been tested, according to annual sampling by the Centers for Disease Control. Firefighters have especially high levels of PFAS in their blood. Occupational cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters, both active-duty and retirees.
As Fall River firefighter Jason Burns says, “Cancer looks different when it is a 32 –year-old you are putting in the ground.”
Firefighters have been highly exposed because their personal protective gear is saturated with PFAS, a legacy of unscrupulous chemical and gear manufacturers who not only made and used these chemicals despite knowing of the hazards, but also infiltrated National Fire Protection Association boards to develop standards requiring that 100 percent of fire gear be made with toxic PFAS.
Until recently, federal regulations required firefighters to use PFAS-containing foam to fight large fuel-driven fires. While these fires are not that common, firefighters regularly trained with these foams, exposing themselves and contaminating the groundwater around training sites, airports, and military facilities.
Firefighters are not the only ones being hurt. PFAS are in food packaging, carpets, clothing, children’s products, dental floss, personal care products, cookware, furniture, semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, and hundreds of other items. PFAS are in drinking water, groundwater, rivers, lakes, soil, and the ocean.
PFAS concentrates in sludge, the solid material that is left over as wastewater is processed. Since the 1970s, sludge has been distributed to farms and sold to gardeners as fertilizer for crops. As a result, PFAS are in the food we eat–in vegetables, milk, meat, rice, and coffee.
In Minnesota, Amara Strande was sickened by a large PFAS plume beneath her high school. She and her family advocated tirelessly to pass Minnesota’s 2023 ban on PFAS in most products. Amara died at age 20 of cancer, several weeks before the Minnesota law was passed.
In Massachusetts, the Cape has long had elevated levels of breast cancer. We now know that firefighting foam has contaminated drinking water in numerous Cape and island communities, including Mashpee, Barnstable, and Nantucket.
Across the state, 177 public water systems and an unknown number of private wells have had elevated levels of PFAS in water. In Westminster, a contaminated compost site caused nearby residents to have PFAS in their well water at 300 times the level the state considers safe. These residents have been diagnosed with kidney cancer, progressive neurological illnesses, and other diseases linked to PFAS.
PFAS are persistent and bio accumulative. They never fully break down. As we make and use things with PFAS, the PFAS in our bodies and the environment increases. Unless we stop using PFAS, more Massachusetts residents will inevitably experience the kind of tragic and preventable illnesses already afflicting firefighters and others who have been highly exposed.
Massachusetts has spent millions to test drinking water and install new filtration systems. Those dollars, important as they are, treat the symptoms, they don’t solve the problem.
The Act to Protect Massachusetts Public Health tackles PFAS at its source by banning PFAS in firefighting foam, firefighter personal protective equipment, and consumer products like food packaging, children’s products, personal care products, furniture, textiles, and cookware. It phases out the land application of PFAS-containing sludge and restricts industrial releases of PFAS, while also setting up a fund to test and treat private wells and public water systems for PFAS.
As the Legislature hurtles towards its July 31 end-of-session deadline, our elected officials have a decision to make: Are they going to act in a timely way to protect those who rush to our aid in our greatest time of need, or are they going to tell firefighters that they ran out of time?
Paul W. Jacques is the legislative agent for the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. Elizabeth Saunders is Massachusetts director and Laura Spark is environmental health program director of Clean Water Action.
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