[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: Firefighting ‘turnout gear’

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

It’s time to end the use of ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting ‘turnout gear’

By Jay Lucey 
Environmental Working Group
June 21, 2022

What happens if life-saving equipment also poisons your body? 

Ask a firefighter – it’s been happening to them for the past half-century. 

That’s because “turnout gear” – the clothing made of layers that firefighters don every time they leave the station for a call – is made with the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. 

Now Congress may be poised to direct the Defense Department to phase out the use of turnout gear made with PFAS. Both the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, which sets policy for the DOD, would end the purchase of turnout gear made with PFAS, as long as safe alternatives are available. 

Typical “turnout gear” has three layers – a thermal interior layer, a moisture barrier and an outer shell. Studies by experts at the University of Notre Dame have confirmed the presence of PFAS and found that the chemicals can migrate from the moisture barrier and outer shell layers, contaminating the thermal layer that comes into direct contact with a firefighter’s skin.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/06/its-time-end-use-forever-chemicals-firefighting-turnout-gear

--

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





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