‘Like a Russian Roulette’: US Military Firefighters Grapple With Unknowns of PFAS Exposure
By Patricia Kime and Hannah Norman
KFF Health News
SEPTEMBER 7, 2023
A U.S. military firefighter for 32 years, Kurt Rhodes trained and performed his duties with aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF — a highly effective fire suppressant that he never knew contained PFAS chemicals, now known to be harmful to human health.
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The chemicals in the firefighting foam are suspected to have polluted more than 700 active and former military installations as well as thousands of towns across the U.S., potentially exposing millions of people to long-term health risks, say the scientists and public health experts who study the chemicals. The contamination was the result of industrial spills, dumping, and firefighting.
The new testicular cancer findings, as well as new requirements to fund PFAS testing in some communities, have firefighters like Rhodes on edge.
Many have sought recently developed blood serum tests to determine their cumulative levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. But it’s unclear what they should do with those test results, given there are no medical treatments to remove PFAS from the body.
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For the entire article, see
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/pfas-forever-chemicals-exposure-military-firefighters-unknowns/
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Lenny Siegel Executive Director Center for Public Environmental Oversight A project of the Pacific Studies Center LSiegel@cpeo.orgP.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042 Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918 http://www.cpeo.org Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)
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