Officers on the U.S. Forest Service knew gear worn by wildland firefighters contained doubtlessly harmful “ceaselessly chemical compounds” years earlier than the company publicly acknowledged the difficulty, in accordance with inner correspondence obtained by ProPublica.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called PFAS, have been linked to destructive well being impacts, together with sure cancers and delayed growth in youngsters. For years, PFAS chemical compounds have been generally used to deal with the heavy gear worn by municipal firefighters to assist it repel water and oil.
Federal businesses have stated little about whether or not the compounds have been additionally discovered within the lighter heat-resistant clothes worn by wildland firefighters. In February 2024, when ProPublica was reporting on the dangers of wildland firefighting — together with the danger of most cancers — the information group requested each the Forest Service and the Division of the Inside if federal wildland firefighting gear contained PFAS. Each businesses gave practically similar solutions, writing that they didn’t have “particular measured focus information exhibiting that PFAS is contained in protecting clothes and kit.”
However e mail correspondence obtained by ProPublica reveals that authorities officers have been alerted to the presence of PFAS in pants utilized by wildland firefighters as early as 2021. In April 2022, a senior Forest Service official requested colleagues if that they had an obligation to inform firefighters that PFAS had been discovered of their gear.
In line with the emails, the company determined to not instantly share the knowledge, as an alternative ready for the outcomes of a research into whether or not PFAS will be absorbed via the pores and skin.
The emails have been launched final week in response to a Freedom of Info Act request filed in 2022 by George Broyles, a former Forest Service worker who for years studied smoke publicity amongst firefighters, and who has repeatedly raised considerations in regards to the company’s reluctance to acknowledge most cancers amongst its workforce. “They simply obfuscate,” stated Broyles. “It’s only a continuation of the identical factor: ‘We’re going to stay our heads within the sand and hope that no one notices.’”
The Forest Service declined to reply questions in regards to the information, PFAS chemical compounds in its gear, and firefighter well being. In 2024, the company stated in a press release to ProPublica, “The Forest Service is deeply dedicated to not solely understanding occupational dangers to workers however mitigating these dangers.”
The Division of the Inside didn’t reply questions on PFAS.
By 2021, public consciousness of the ubiquity and dangers of PFAS was rising. Originally of that yr, Congress ordered the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Expertise, a subagency of the Division of Commerce, to search out out if firefighting gear contained PFAS. Researchers from the company started amassing hoods and gloves worn by municipal firefighters — who sort out constructing fires — in addition to varied samples of wildland firefighting gear.
In April, in accordance with the paperwork, a Forest Service gear specialist emailed one in all its suppliers, TenCate, which produces material utilized in wildland firefighting gear. On the time, the corporate’s “Advance” material, a Kevlar mix utilized in some pants, was handled with a ending product referred to as Shelltite. “Query,” requested the Forest Service specialist. “Does the Shelltite end on the Advance material have any PFAS presence?”
A TenCate supervisor shortly responded by attaching a doc confirming that one in all its finishes contained a type of PFAS that had been utilized to repel hydrocarbons and gasoline. The supervisor additionally stated that TenCate was “within the ultimate levels of creating” a end with out the compound.
TenCate didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark from ProPublica.
PFAS is a broad class of chemical compounds. In line with emails despatched from TenCate to the Forest Service, the corporate’s end used a type of PFAS with six or fewer fluorinated carbon atoms. In line with specialists, these “short-chain” PFAS chemical compounds are much less dangerous than different ones, however some can linger within the atmosphere for years and within the human physique for months. Their full influence on human well being just isn’t identified.
All firefighters have considerably larger most cancers dangers than the final inhabitants, however much less is known in regards to the well being of wildland firefighters than of their counterparts who battle blazes in buildings and different buildings. That is largely the fault of the federal government: As ProPublica has reported, the Forest Service has identified of carcinogenic components in wildfire smoke for many years however the authorities dragged its heels in learning the impacts on wildland firefighters. Researchers have discovered elevated ranges of some PFAS within the blood of structural firefighters, however much less is understood about these chemical compounds of their wildland friends.
Whereas structural firefighting departments typically require clothes that repel oil and water, specialists say it isn’t all the time obligatory for wildland firefighters, who typically put on the identical gear for weeks in distant places.
“From the wildland firefighting perspective, I don’t see any cause to have the PFAS therapies of their gear. They don’t really want the oil repellency,” stated Bryan Ormond, an affiliate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at North Carolina State College, in an e mail. “It might be a safer choice to not have the PFAS therapy.”
In line with a former fireplace service official with direct information of the dynamic, the presence of PFAS in pants was a subject of dialogue round 2021 by a threat administration committee made up of senior officers from a number of businesses, together with the Forest Service and the Division of the Inside. The official stated that committee members needed to know: “Is it an enormous deal, little deal, or no deal?”
In April 2022, a full yr after TenCate informed the Forest Service in regards to the PFAS therapy used on its material, a senior company official named David Haston raised the difficulty once more. An assistant director of operations on the Forest Service on the time, Haston emailed colleagues asking whether or not TenCate’s material was “nonetheless coming with PFAS within the end? Can Tencate inform us whether or not or not that is hazardous to those that put on these clothes? Do we have now an obligation to inform workers?”
The e-mail was forwarded to a Forest Service gear specialist named David Maclay-Schulte who stated he’d requested the corporate if its PFAS-free material was prepared. “They stated they’ll look into it and get again to me,” wrote the specialist. “I’m hopeful it’s sooner somewhat than later.”
5 months later, in September, Maclay-Schulte wrote to Forest Service officers that he nonetheless hadn’t heard again from TenCate. Within the e mail, Maclay-Schulte stated he would contact the corporate once more, however added that the Forest Service had determined to attend till the Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being had accomplished research, together with one about whether or not PFAS will be absorbed via pores and skin, “earlier than any selections could be made.” In the identical e mail, he requested colleagues whether or not he ought to reply to questions on PFAS that Broyles had requested on behalf of a labor advocacy group referred to as Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. The opposite officers all agreed that they’d not instantly inform Grassroots in regards to the PFAS. “They should ship the FS an official request asking for this data,” wrote a physiologist for the company.
In line with a number of wildland firefighters and authorities officers acquainted with contracting and buying, the Forest Service by no means informed rank-and-file wildland firefighters that their pants may comprise PFAS.
“To me it demonstrates that managers excessive up within the company over a number of years have by no means actually prioritized the well being and well-being of the particular firefighters,” stated Riva Duncan, the president of Grassroots and a former Forest Service fireplace chief. Duncan famous that many wildland firefighters put on their pants even within the offseason. “They’ve identified about this. They’ve identified about different threats to well being and well-being but they’ve chosen to not be proactive and share the knowledge with workers. It appears it’s solely after they’re compelled to offer data that we discover out about it.”
Up to now few years, below stress from labor teams and lawmakers, the federal authorities has begun to acknowledge most cancers within the workforce, and the Forest Service final yr made masks accessible to wildland firefighters in response to reporting from The New York Times. However a full accounting of the dangers continues to be not accessible; the federal government’s preparedness information for incoming wildland firefighters, produced in 2022, makes no mention of cancer. When ProPublica requested the Division of the Inside if it deliberate to replace the information, a spokesperson directed the information group to a weblog post about research into workplace hazards that doesn’t point out most cancers.
In January 2023, virtually two years after the Forest Service discovered of the PFAS therapies, TenCate lastly responded to Maclay-Schulte. “To one of the best of our information sporting ADVANCE with Shelltite or Supershelltite has not brought on deleterious well being impacts,” wrote a senior director on the firm. However the firm additionally knowledgeable the company that it was now producing its PFAS-free end for the pant material.
It’s unclear if the federal government started buying pants with the brand new end or if it continued to buy the pants with PFAS.
In 2024, NIST released the study of PFAS in firefighting gear that Congress had mandated in 2021. The research discovered that some wildland firefighting gear contained PFAS. Most of it had modest quantities of the chemical compounds. However, NIST wrote, in a summary of the study, “there have been some instances that had notably excessive ranges.” In line with Heather Stapleton, an publicity scientist and professor at Duke College, the research confirmed ranges in sure samples “just like what has been reported in structural firefighting gear.”
The research didn’t specify the businesses it had sourced its gear from, and NIST didn’t reply to questions from ProPublica. The NIOSH research that the Forest Service officers had been ready on when deciding the best way to act, nevertheless, continues to be ongoing.
