Read the full article by Sharon Udasin and Andrea K. Gerlak (Earth.Org)
“For decades, as US service members risked their lives on the frontlines, they also endured a threat beyond the battlefield: the toxic effects of firefighting foam – a substance designed to defend them.
Aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) has been known since the 1960s for its miraculous abilities to smother otherwise catastrophic jet fuel-based fires. But the key ingredients in that foam, deployed for decades at military bases and civilian airports worldwide, are cancer-causing compounds known as ‘forever chemicals.’
Mark Favors, a veteran who has lost multiple relatives to illnesses he links to the chemicals, recalled how ‘most of them survived either Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq’ in a recent book Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America.
‘They’re now in a military cemetery – not for combat wounds but for being poisoned by the military,’ said Favors.
There are thousands of types of these chemicals – also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – and many are found in household staples like non-stick pans and waterproof apparel. Notorious for their tendency to linger in the environment and the body, some PFAS have been linked to cancers and other illnesses. “…