[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: Aqueous film-forming foam at commercial airports

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

AFFF at Commercial Airports  the Blessings and the Curse of PFAS 

By Jeffrey S. Longworth and Tammy L. Helminski
National Law Review
January 10, 2019

Unintended consequences are outcomes that are not foreseen or planned by actions
or decisions, and they are often associated with government regulations. So,
when the federal government required that commercial airports train with,
calibrate equipment with, and use the best performing aqueous film-forming foam
fire (AFFF) suppression systems to protect the safety of passengers, crew and
others in the case of petroleum-based fires at airports, little did anyone
predict that components in the AFFF would ultimately present threats to human
health and the environment. In fact, the key constituents that help make AFFF so
effective at fighting fires  surfactant compounds from a class of chemicals
referred to as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFASs)  have
recently been associated with considerable adverse health effects, including
cancer.

In order to fully grasp the nature of the growing concern relating to PFAS at
airports, one needs to understand that such compounds are pervasive through our
economy/environment (not just in AFFF at airports). That research is still
catching up to these emerging contaminants. Airports now may have significant
liability merely by having followed the rules in providing a level of public
safety in case of an emergency.

Background of PFAS Compounds

PFAS represents thousands of man-made compounds that have been manufactured
since about the 1940s. Most human health assessments that associate two PFAS
compounds  perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid
(PFOS)  with human health effects have only reached those conclusions in the
past decade.1 By 2015, PFOA- and PFOS-related products had been fully phased
out through an agreement between manufacturers and the federal government.2



For the entire article, see
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/afff-commercial-airports-blessings-and-curs
e-pfas

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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