California assembly introduces bill to ban PFAS in firefighter gear

The proposed legislation, named the Firefighter Cancer Prevention Act, protects California firefighters from known cancer-causing chemicals called per-fluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called ‘forever chemicals’. Firefighter gear has been found to contain significant levels of PFAS, said an official press release.

In 2020, the California legislature passed legislation that would phase out the use of certain fire-fighting foams with PFAS, namely the foam that is used to fight chemical and oil fires.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) currently sets the safety and quality standards for this equipment. While manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) have largely been able to produce gear able to meet existing NFPA standards with safe alternatives to PFAS, one of the standards for the actual gear the fire fighters wear is a light degradation resistance test.

This test uses ultraviolet (UV) light to test the moisture resistance of the gear to make sure it can hold up in the field. Currently, that test can only be passed by adding PFAS to the firefighting gear.

The upcoming revision of the NFPA standard proposes removing the UV light test, recognising that it does not apply to the materials inside the fabric of their gear, because those materials are never exposed to direct sunlight.

The legislation will ensure that the moment a safe alternative is made available for making fire fighter gear water resistant.

Additionally, the bill directs the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to revise its regulations to meet the latest testing safety standard within a year after it has been updated.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)