Safety equipment meant to shield firefighters from danger may be increasing their risk of cancer and premature death.
Tests conducted at Université de Montréal‘s environmental chemistry laboratory for Radio-Canada’s Enquête revealed high levels of PFAS in the textiles that make up a firefighter’s bunker gear, the clothing they wear when they respond to calls.
The bunker gear protects firefighters from flames, heat and chemical spills. It is made up of three different layers. All three, including the one in direct contact with firefighters’ skin, were found to be imbued with PFAS.
Also known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are a group of chemicals associated with an increased risk of developing certain cancers and liver damage, as well as negatively impacting the immune system. They persist in the environment and the human body.
“We are talking about textiles with very, very, very high levels of PFAS exposure,” said Sébastien Sauvé, a chemistry professor at the university.
He said the level of PFAS detected in the bunker gear was equivalent to toxic waste.
“We think of this equipment as something that protects us when we go fight fires,” said Chris Ross, president of the Montreal Firefighters Association.
But he wonders if that gear contributes to cancer cases among union members.
While some North American cities are moving to replace gear containing PFAS, Montreal has not yet made that commitment.
Firefighters more likely to get cancer
According to recent data published by the Montreal Firefighters Association, 77 Montreal firefighters have died from work-related cancer in the past 15 years, while three have died in action.
Montreal firefighter deaths account for 90 per cent of all firefighter deaths from occupational diseases in Quebec.
And firefighters are about 10 per cent more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with cancer, according to Health Canada.
The province is expected to add six more cancers to the list used by the CNESST, Quebec’s workplace health and safety board. Leukemia, brain, testicular, esophageal, colorectal and breast cancer will be added, so firefighters diagnosed with those illnesses no longer need to prove the disease was work-related.
The chemical cocktails that are emitted when modern homes burn, as well as foams used to extinguish fires, were long seen as the biggest hazards to firefighters.
But firefighters increasingly worry that PFAS, which make firefighting gear more resistant to abrasion, heat and moisture, could also be hurting them.
“We trust the industry and those who set the standards,” said Ed Kelly, who heads the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) which represents 350,000 firefighters in North America, including those in Montreal.
“In this case, it turned out to be false.”
Quebec now recognizes 15 cancers as potential occupational hazards for firefighters including leukemia, brain, testicular, esophageal, colorectal and breast cancer, after years of lobbying by firefighters’ unions.
But the IAFF also wants legislators in North America to ban perfluorinated substances in their protective equipment.
“That’s not a risk that we took when we took our oath to be firefighters. That’s unacceptable,” Kelly said, calling it the “fight of our generation.”
Decommissioned gear tested
Enquête obtained a recently decommissioned coat and pants manufactured in 2012 and 2013, respectively, as well as another pair of pants made in 2000 and had them tested in Sauvé’s lab. All items were used by Montreal firefighters.
Firefighting gear is typically decommissioned after eight to 10 years.
Tests revealed all three pieces of clothing contained high levels of PFAS with about 30 different types of the molecule detected, some of which were banned by the federal government years ago.
The standard issue work pants, which firefighters are required to wear at the station and are not designed to protect from fires, contained more than 500 parts per billion of PFAS.
The most contaminated part of the pants made in 2000 had over 38,000 parts per billion.
“That it’s so easy to extract so much PFAS from a firefighter’s gear means that there is a portion of those PFAS that are absorbed by our firefighters when they use the clothing,” said Sauvé, adding that studies show the chemicals are absorbed through the skin.
How to reduce exposure?
PFAS are widely used in everyday products like frying pans, waterproof clothing, food packaging and personal care products. They’ve become a significant source of contamination of water bodies and are found in municipal drinking water across much of North America.
“It’s in my training gear, it’s in my cycling shorts, it’s in my sports T-shirts,” said Martin Guilbault, who was a firefighter for 30 years and is now division chief at the Montreal fire department training centre.
“What is most important is the level I am exposed to through the gear versus what I wear every day.”
American studies have shown PFAS are widespread in firefighting gear south of the border. Previous studies have also found PFAS in waterproof clothing and athletic wear, but Sauvé said the levels his team found in the bunker gear are in a class of their own.
“They are mega champions in terms of PFAS concentrations,” Sauvé said.
After reviewing the test results, the Montreal fire department told Enquête that since 2022 it has been purchasing gear with only one of three layers containing PFAS and that it is monitoring market developments for the safest options.
But critics say the city could do more, such as providing firefighters with clothing better suited to interventions that don’t involve fires. Firefighters must currently put on their full gear when answering all calls, including when they are acting as medical first responders.
“For Montreal firefighters, it’s our all-purpose coat,” said Ross. “When it’s cold outside, we put on the firefighting gear. When it rains, we put on the firefighting gear. We go to refuel the truck, we put on the firefighting gear. We go grocery shopping, we put on the firefighting gear.”
Montreal’s 2,400 firefighters answered nearly 80,000 calls last year that posed no fire risk.
An unexpected discovery
The presence of PFAS in bunker gear became widely known after Diane Cotter suspected that her husband’s prostate cancer was linked to the clothing he wore as a Boston-area firefighter.
Unable to get a clear answer from manufacturers about what chemicals were in the garments, Cotter turned to Graham Peaslee, a professor and leading expert in PFAS in consumer products at the University of Notre-Dame in Indiana.
“When I measured them, they were absolutely not just fluorinated, but highly fluorinated, some of the highest values I’d ever seen,” said Peaslee. “And the first thing we saw was the detector screaming with fluorine.”
Peaslee tested more than 40 firefighting outfits, from all over the United States.
His work also revealed that, with time and wear, PFAS migrate from one layer of fabric to another and accumulate in the dust of fire stations where the gear is stored.
As soon as the first scientific article on the presence of PFAS in bunker gear was published in 2020, the IAFF issued a safety advisory to alert its members and encouraged them to exercise caution.
The battle of a generation
Since then, a number of lawsuits were brought against manufacturers in the United States and PFAS-free fabrics have appeared on the market.
The body that sets industry standards predicts it will be possible to certify such garments next year. It intends to limit the total content of perfluorinated substances permitted in personal protective equipment.
Several major U.S. cities have begun to make the transition. In Canada, the cities of Sault Ste. Marie and Vancouver are gradually replacing firefighters’ outfits with PFAS-free equipment.
In Montreal, Ross, who was recently elected vice-president of the IAFF, intends to continue working with the city to ensure the safety of its members.
And he says firefighters will continue to serve their communities with the same dedication.
“Those who work as firefighters, they want to save lives,” Ross said. “They will continue to save lives even when they are aware of the danger. They’re going to think twice, but they’re going to put on their combat gear, and they’re going to go to the fire.”
