Airport firefighters demand their blood be tested for toxic chemicals
Airport firefighters have demanded their blood be tested for toxic firefighting foam chemicals “as a matter of urgency”.
The United Firefighters Union said its aviation members could be among the worst affected by toxic firefighting foam, which was used at Australian airports, fire stations and military bases from the 1980s. The foam contained perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Pfas), which studies in the US have linked with cancer and other illnesses.
The Western Australian and Queensland governments have both recently announced they would offer blood testing to their firefighters. But the UFU believes the exposure for firefighters at airports would likely have been more severe.
Airservices Australia used 3M Light Water, the most toxic foam, at just under half of the 56 airports it was responsible for between the 1980s and 2000s.
The UFU’s aviation branch secretary, Henry Lawrence, said airport firefighters, past and present, should be told whether they have unsafe levels of Pfas in their blood.
Testing, he said, would give firefighters peace of mind and would allow them to monitor whether contamination was still occurring at legacy sites.
“The Queensland fire service is doing it, the West Australian service, the metropolitan fire service in Melbourne is doing it, so why can’t Airservices follow a responsible and caring lead for their employees?” Lawrence told Guardian Australia. “Why are they not wanting to introduce the testing? Why won’t they give us the information that we’re asking for?”
The potential health impacts of long-term exposure to Pfas chemicals have become a global concern for firefighters.
In September an American attorney, Rob Bilott, wrote a letter of notice to the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) calling for a nationwide health study and testing on firefighters.
The note – which under the ATSDR’s constitution could lead to litigation if unanswered – was filed on behalf of Jeffrey Hermes, a firefighter and prostate cancer survivor from northern Kentucky, and alleges that Pfas chemicals were used in the safety gear won by US firefighters.
Hermes said in a statement that firefighters who had suffered from cancer “deserve to know whether the equipment we relied upon every day – the firefighting foams and our protective clothing and gear – actually exposed us to unsafe levels of these toxic Pfas chemicals or increased our risk of contracting a serious illness or disease”.
In 2001, Bilott led a successful class action against DuPont on behalf of 70,000 residents in West Virginia and Ohio who alleged they had been poisoned after their drinking water was contaminated with Pfas.
The case, which DuPont eventually settled for $671m, was used to set up a seven-year toxicological study that found a probable link with high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy induced hypertension.
Bilott said that while that study focused on Pfoa – one part of the Pfas family of chemicals – many other variants of the contaminant had been discovered since.
“You have a broader suite of chemicals being picked up across the country,” he said.
Bilott said the particularly regular and intense exposure of firefighters to the contaminants justified wider testing.
“There have been studies done looking at levels at perfluorochemicals in the blood of firefighters and they are very high much higher than the general population,” he said. “They’re also known to have much higher cancer rates but nobody has really done a comprehensive national study confirming the connection between the two.
“So the question we would ask be addressed and confirmed is the extent to which these adverse effects found among firefighters, are these adverse health affects found among firefighters related to perfluorochemicals?”
Airservices said in a statement that it was “surprised” by the UFU’s call for blood testing because it already planned on “working with the appropriate health authorities to consider a second voluntary health study, which may include blood testing”.
“The union has been advised of this announcement and we have indicated to them that we would like them to be involved in this work where appropriate,” a spokeswoman said. “Airservices is aware that two other fire services have announced Pfas-related health studies this year.
“Our ARFF service was the first agency to conduct a program of this nature with a health study conducted in 2013, which saw all staff offered voluntary blood testing as part of the program.”
But Lawrence said Airservices was resisting freedom of information requests by the union to obtain information about the extent of contamination at its sites.
After warnings from the federal chemicals regulator in 2003, Airservices dropped 3M Light Water for another type of foam, Ansulite, which it wrongly believed contained no Pfas. But Airservices waited until 2008 to begin a program of preliminary site assessments for contamination at airports.
Airservices moved to a Pfas-free alternative, Solberg RF6, in 2010.
Lawrence said past firefighters were calling the union on a daily basis, concerned about Pfas contamination. He said the there was no indication that the foam may be unsafe and it was not treated with any caution.
“From talking to members from that era, no there wasn’t [any caution],” he said. “Everyone was told that it was completely safe, no cause for concern.”
Airservices have been contacted for comment.