Firefighters face toxic aftermath
When Kevin ‘‘Blackie’’ Black used fire foams back in the 1970s, he never suspected it could affect his health.
Back then, aqueous film forming foam – or AFFF as the firefighters called it – was considered the best way to extinguish an aeroplane fire because it coated the fuel and smothered the flames. Now, the foam is recognised as a toxic substance, contaminating airports, land and waterways across the country, and fire crew are banned from using it.
Nearly 50 years after Blackie took a job with the firefighting crew at Base Woodbourne near Blenheim, he is starting to wonder whether the foam’s polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have accumulated in his body.
‘‘Ignorance is bliss. I have to say, I’ve been trying not to think about it. If you dwell on something like that, it’s not good,’’ Blackie said.
According to the Ministry for the Environment, PFAS are man-made chemicals in use since the 1950s for the commercial and industrial production of products like furniture protectants, and floor wax. It wasn’t until the 1990s that its impact on the environment became well known, and even longer before its effects on humans were recognised.
The chemicals weren’t classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer until 2016 – five years after New Zealand banned firefighters from using it in 2011.
In December 2018 an Australian Senate inquiry into the contamination of defence bases accepted there were harmful effects and recommended the Australian Government ‘‘as soon as possible, undertake measures to improve participation in the voluntary blood testing programme for PFAS’’.
By the time New Zealand recognised its potency, firefighters like Blackie had been using the foams for years, getting it on their hands and feet during training exercises, and then washing down the area where it leached into the ground and waterways.
Now, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters’ Union is calling for Fire and
Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) to offer blood testing to firefighters who used PFAS foam before it was banned.
People living near Base
Woodbourne have had to pull out grapevines and install new water supplies, after the Defence Force discovered PFAS chemicals were lingering in the aquifer.
‘‘It’s the best foam for fuel firefighting and they used it around the world ... It was one of those accepted things and it happened all over the country.
‘‘And now we’re paying the price,’’ Blackie says.
A blood test would be either peace of mind, or motivation to get cancer screening.
The union’s campaign for better screening isn’t just about the foam – it extends to exposure to harmful chemicals at house fires, where all sorts of plastics and solvents can be burnt and absorbed into the body.
Cherie Flintoff’s husband, Brett ‘‘Gonzo’’ How, died last year from lung cancer, after nearly 30 years of firefighting.
His death was a shock. They were planning to marry when he was diagnosed and the wedding was quickly followed by radiation treatment on what should have been their honeymoon. Flintoff spent hours between hospital visits trying to prove a link between her husband’s work and his cancer diagnosis in an application to ACC for treatment funding.
‘‘I couldn’t tell you how many hours and days and weeks went into it,’’ Flintoff says.
‘‘In any given fire they are going to be exposed to dozens of different carcinogens ... so many carcinogens it’s hard to know which ones actually caused the cancer. So ... it’s harder for them to get covered by ACC. Even though it’s a normal part of their job.’’ How died in January 2018, aged 54.
ACC approved the application some months later, in what was believed to be the first time in New Zealand a firefighter’s cancer was accepted as the result of years of exposure.
Flintoff wants ACC legislation changed, to make it easier for firefighters to get cancer screening and funding for treatment through ACC.
‘‘Brett was a fighter, if it had been detected earlier he could have had a chance,’’ she says.
To Flintoff, the link between How’s career and his cancer was explicit. ‘‘The firefighters have known this for decades, because they’ve seen so many of their own suffering and dying from it.
‘‘Why are we so far behind all the other countries?’’
A list of cancers, including lung cancer, has been recognised as an occupational hazard for firefighters in Canada, the
United States and Australia.
Union secretary Wattie Watson says good breathing apparatus and protective clothing is not always enough to stop toxic chemicals from burning household materials seeping into the skin.
Cancer screening and treatment should be covered by ACC, ‘‘just like breaking a leg at work’’, she says. But it’s a complicated task to prove the illness is work-related. ‘‘You basically have to pinpoint an event that caused it, and of course firefighters are exposed to hundreds of house fires, and the toxins build up over the years.’’
Union president Ian Wright and Canadian firefighter Alex Forrest have been discussing ACC reform with ACC Minister Iain Lees-galloway and Fenz representatives.
Forrest, a firefighter with decades of experience and a background in law, has been described by NZPFU as ‘‘instrumental’’ in the development of legislation in the US, Canada and Australia, and is doing similar work with unions in Europe.
The union wants any career firefighter with at least five years of service who is diagnosed with a listed cancer to be eligible for ACC – Blackie would like to see this extended to volunteers.
Lees-galloway says he is seeking advice from officials.
Watson says the campaign in relation to the foam is difficult because PFAS was used in household items such as nonstick surfaces, plastic food wrap and furniture polish, and most people would test positive. The chemicals accumulate over time, and linger in the bloodstream for years. Very low levels are considered non harmful.
‘‘But the only way we can see the exposure levels is with a blood test. And there’s a bit of a push back about that,’’ Watson says. ‘‘But firefighters need to know, and then they can make some decisions and get some medical advice.’’
The medical community is still trialling ways to get rid of it, including bloodletting – withdrawing a patient’s blood and replacing it with clean blood. Fenz should be paying for blood testing, just as ACC should be paying for their cancer treatment, she says.
Fenz urban national commander Paul Mcgill says it has been checking sites nationwide, for PFAS foam contamination, as seen at Base Woodbourne. ‘‘The Ministry of Health does not currently recommend blood testing for PFAS as an indicator of future health problems, but we are working closely with the unions and associations and are consulting international experts about the issue.’’