Firefighters Battle an Unseen Hazard: Their Gear Could Be Toxic

It’s a relevant science story to HN and I share because it’s directly affected my friend who is a firefighter on Nantucket. This stuff needs more attention.

https://youtu.be/s4lGGMdF8Ds

I can't read the article because of the paywall, but I can say that this has been a known issue for a while. The NFPA has been recommending that firefighters turnout gear and other equipment be cleaned / decontaminated regularly for some time. I believe this advice was circulating back when I was still a firefighter, some 20 years ago. But it was the case then, and is probably still the case now, that many departments - especially smaller, all-volunteer departments in rural areas - don't have the resources to do this. For starters, if you're going to wash a set of turnout gear, then the firefighter in question needs another clean set to use in the interim, so you're roughly doubling the number of sets of gear you need. And there are departments that barely have enough gear to provide each member with one set, much less two.

And you need laundry facilities which aren't always present in fire stations. And a generic Kenmore washer from Sears probably won't hold up very long washing turnout gear due to the size and weight - you really need a proper (read, expensive) industrial washer.

All in all, it's a problem that still needs attention from what I can see. And cancer rates for firefighters still run disproportionately high relative to the general population. Gear soaked in various contaminants is likely a factor in that. :-(