A Tucson Fire Department engine responds to a scene.
University of Arizona researchers say they have found increased levels of PFAS– a class of man-made chemicals used in firefighting foams and stain repellents– in the blood of firefighters and health care workers.
A study looked at the differences in blood concentrations of PFAS among 1,960 frontline workers including 280 firefighters, 787 healthcare workers and 734 other essential workers in the state.
Firefighters showed the highest concentrations of PFAS in their blood samples which aligns with previous research and implies distinct sources of occupational exposure.
Jeff Burgess is a co-author on the study.
He said that firefighters have many different exposures including known human carcinogens that are in smoke.
“But they also have other exposures like per and polyfluoroalkyl substances also known as PFAS that are at higher levels than the general population,” Burgess said.
The study discovered moderately elevated levels of other types of synthetic chemicals among healthcare workers compared with teachers.
“For healthcare workers, some of the potential exposures that we think deserve additional study include some of the water and kind of grease resistant type of materials that they may be using to protect themselves, let’s say from bodily fluids,” Burgess said.
Protective clothing and certain surgical masks may also have PFAS.
Research shows that almost all adults have detectable levels of certain PFAS –some show higher concentrations than others due to occupational exposures.
Burgess is also investigating ways to reduce cancer risk in firefighters – he’s the director of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study– an ongoing study that collaborates with firefighters, collecting blood and urine samples to survey exposures and cancer risks.
As well as stopping or reversing some of the changes that occur at a cellular level prior to the development of cancer in firefighters he said.
The initial idea came from a request made by John Gulotta with the Tucson Fire Department.
“We had a fire cause investigator Tom Quesnel that was diagnosed with one of the five presumptive cancers and his diagnosis through the state was denied as a presumptive cancer,” Gulotta said.
Gulotta is the safety and wellness captain for the department as well as the research liaison to the UA.
Under Arizona law, “any disease, infirmity or impairment of a firefighter’s or fire investigator’s health that is caused by brain, bladder, rectal or colon cancer, lymphoma, leukemia or adenocarcinoma or mesothelioma of the respiratory tract and that results in disability or death is presumed to be an occupational disease.. and is deemed to arise out of employment.”
The same applies to buccal cavity, pharynx, esophagus, large intestine, lung, kidney, prostate, skin, stomach, ovarian, breast or testicular cancer or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma or malignant melanoma.
Gulotta explained that the claim was denied because of the lack of research.
“One day in late 2013, Tom [Quesnel] had come into my office and it was the week that he knew he was not coming back to work and he was cleaning out his office and he came into mine and he sat down across from me and it’s sad to say that I didn’t recognize Tom because of all his treatments and the care that he was going through to help fight his cancer to help fight his cancer, it had changed him physically and it was heartbreaking to see that,” Gulotta said.
Quesnel asked his colleague for three favors.
“We needed to make the state understand presumptive, the definition of presumptive because they just obviously didn’t get it and which that’s why I needed the University of Arizona. The two other favors he asked were to take care of his fire cause investigators and to work with them on improving their protection,” Gulotta said. “The last thing he asked for was not to let another family suffer like his.”
Initial research showed that everyone who is present at a fire incident is exposed –this has led to the intervention of more people wearing protective breathing gear which would reduce chemical exposure by 40%.
“I was really surprised that the folks even outside, if we were too close or if we weren’t, the exposures, were just as much as the folks that went interior,” Gulotta said.
However firefighters who wash their gear off after coming out of a fire could reduce exposure to toxicants by 33%.
“It’s really important to understand that these research questions, this whole project came about because firefighters asked for it. They are interested in gathering information that helps them make their jobs safer and can preserve their health,” Burgess said.
Participation is voluntary, as of March, the Cohort has enrolled about nearly 7,500 firefighters from more than 350 departments across 31 states.
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