The health risks of AFFF exposure
With each use of AFFF, tremendous amounts of PFAS are released into the environment, and inevitably, firefighters are exposed to the chemicals even if they wear protective gear. To make matters worse, PFAS are also present in firefighting protective gear, and as it wears out, these harmful substances can escape, posing yet another serious health threat to firefighters.
The following are the health conditions and diseases military and civilian firefighters are at high risk of developing as a consequence of using AFFF regularly:
- kidney cancer
- testicular cancer
- thyroid disease
- ulcerative colitis
- bladder cancer
- leukemia
- multiple myeloma
- non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- male breast cancer
- liver cancer
- pancreatic cancer
- prostate cancer
- thyroid cancer
The firefighters who are most likely to develop a disease as a result of AFFF exposure are those who worked in:
- firefighting training areas
- aircraft crash sites
- military airport hangars
- commercial airports.
The AFFF products were designed, marketed, manufactured, distributed, and sold by one or more of the following companies, which have been named as defendants in many lawsuits:
- 3M Company
- Tyco Fire Products
- Buckeye Fire Equipment
- Chemguard
- Du Pont de Nemours
- The Chemours Company
- Chubb Fire
- Corteva
- National Foam
- Kidde Fire Fighting
- Enterra Corp.
- Williams Holdings
- Dynax Corporation
- UTC Fire & Security America’s Corp.
Eligibility criteria for firefighters exposed to AFFF:
The following are the eligibility requirements you must meet to become eligible to file a claim for AFFF exposure:
you must have used AFFF regularly on the job after 1960
you must have a diagnosis that is related to PFAS exposure
you must have been discharged from the military other than dishonorably.