Massachusetts has joined Connecticut in becoming the first two states in the U.S. to ban the use of PFAS in the manufacture of firefighters’ protective clothing. The decision to ban the use of these chemicals was made last year, but the ban does not come into effect until 1st January 2027. But what are PFAS chemicals and why has Massachusetts decided to ban their use in firefighter gear?
What exactly are PFAS chemicals?
PFAS is an acronym standing for “per/polyfluoroalkyl substances”. These substances are a family of some 15,000 different chemicals with similar composition. They exist in small quantities in nature, but the most worrying aspect of PFAS chemicals is their manufacture and use in a wide variety of products, ranging from cookware to clothing and firefighting foam. The main reason PFAS chemicals were introduced into existing products is that they have physical characteristics which prove them to be very useful in certain situations. They are heat and water resistant, for example, which is the main reason why they have become an ingredient in protective clothing used by firefighters, in addition to a supplement in firefighting foam.
PFAS chemicals – the forever chemicals
There are two damning characteristics of PFAS chemicals which have led to the ban on their use in the manufacture of the state’s firefighting protective gear.
The first is their extraordinary persistence in the environment. This means that they take many hundreds of years to break down naturally. This unfortunately also includes the environment inside the human body. Very small quantities of PFAS substances which somehow get inside the body are not broken down by the body’s own chemical defenses, primarily in the liver. They are neither broken down into less harmful substances nor excreted. On the contrary, over the years of exposure to PFAS chemicals, the percentage of PFAS in the human tissue increases. It is this reason that PFAS chemicals have been given the nickname “forever chemicals”.
If PFAS chemicals had no biological effect on the human body, this might not be so bad, but the chemicals have been strongly associated with a number of serious illnesses, such as cancers, immune system disorders and damaging effects on developmental issues. Evidence suggests that only tiny quantities of PFAS chemicals can be instrumental in causing a number of cancers including prostate, testicular and breast cancers.
These factors together combine to make the extended use of PFAS containing firefighting clothing potentially deadly.
The link between PFAS and serious and often incurable disease has been obscured by vested interests, principally the chemical industry involved in manufacturing the actual ingredients used in clothing as well as the manufacturers of turnout gear used to protect firefighters from excessive heat experienced when fighting fires.
The International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) has estimated that two thirds of firefighter deaths between 2002 and 2019 were caused by PFAS related cancer. The 2027 ban on the use of PFAS in firefighting protective clothing is designed to correct this ongoing tragedy.
The road to the ban on PFAS in firefighters clothing has been an uphill battle
The road to actually getting the state government to ban the use of PFAS in firefighting clothing has been a long one and at times it appeared that it might never have happened. A similar bill to do the same in California was lost in that state’s legislature almost at the same time as Massachusetts’ Governor, Maura Healey, signed the PFAS ban bill into law.
One of the main champions behind the bill to ban PFAS was a Worcester firefighter’s wife, Diane Cotter, whose husband developed prostate cancer around 10 years ago. When she attended a local firefighters’ wives’ meeting, her incidental mentioning of her husband’s cancer was met by announcements from nearly every other wife that their husbands had also been diagnosed with cancer. Cotter helped to initiate the grounds for legal action against the use of what was suspected to be the cause of these cancers, i.e. the use of fire resistant chemicals in the gear that the firefighters used at work for often extended periods. She initially found that both the IAFF and the state government were resistant to any change in the use of PFAS. This changed when there was a change in the leadership of the IAFF and a subsequent change of heart by the state government. The final signing of the bill to ban PFAS was opposed all along by the chemical industry and the turnout gear manufacturers who claimed that the ban would put firefighters at risk because there was no alternative to PFAS as a heat retardant.
PFAS isn’t just found in firefighting clothing
The problem of PFAS toxicity is not confined to its use in protective clothing. PFAS helps to make firefighting foam more effective so has been widely used wherever firefighters foam has routinely been used, such as at both commercial and military airfields. Airforce personnel who have become exposed to residual firefighting foam contamination, for instance, have developed similar types of cancer as thr firefighters themselves.
There has been evidence of PFAS contamination in watercourses and ground water caused by use of firefighting foam. Although this danger was not explicitly addressed by the 2027 ban, the Massachusetts Interagency PFAS Task Force has stated that the ban on the use of PFAS in protective gear is one step in trying to eliminate the use of PFAS and its dangers elsewhere. Across the U.S., as in other countries, allegations of PFAS toxicity due to pollution from sources such as factories or airfields into water sources have led to a number of hard fought lawsuits against PFAS manufacturers. The state government sued 13 manufacturers of PFAS containing firefighting foam in 2022, citing contamination of drinking water supplies in several locations across Massachusetts.
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