Read the full article by Rhiannon Hopley (IVTV News).
“Experts are warning that the UK is falling behind in its bid to protect firefighters from exposure to forever chemicals.
Also known as PFAS, forever chemicals are a group of around 15,000 man-made chemicals which can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down.
One use of PFAS was in AFFF – firefighting foams used to put out liquid-fuel fires like those caused by burning petrol or diesel.
The foams were highly effective but some contained PFOA, a forever chemical that is linked to kidney and testicular cancer.
Wayne Crossman was a firefighter in 2005. He remembers using the foam at the site of the Buncefield fire in 2005 – a major fire at an oil storage facility in Hertfordshire which took five days to put out.
‘During that whole incident I never wore a mask. I don’t believe I ever see anyone in breathing apparatus either,’ Wayne said. He also said they used lots of the foam in training exercises.”…