Daily News | Congress seeks to spend more than $100 million to rid ‘forever chemicals’ from firefighters’ protective gear
A once-obscure health risk for firefighters in Philadelphia and across the United States is now a front-burner issue in Congress.
The congressional bill, which was cosponsored by four Democrats and four Republicans, would see the government spend $25 million a year — beginning in the 2024 fiscal year and running through 2028 — on developing the PFAS-free gear, plus an additional $2 million each year on firefighter training.The Burning Question: Firefighters’ protective gear may actually be harming them.
The issue is a personal one for Scott, who has been a volunteer firefighter in Norristown for 20 years. Scott, a Democrat who represents the 54th Legislative District in Montgomery County, said he only recently learned that turnout gear contains PFAS. In 2022, the names of 261 active firefighters were added to a memorial wall the union maintains; nearly two-thirds had died of cancer. The union is supportive of Fitzpatrick’s bill, and Scott’s legislation.
In 2018, Graham Peaslee, a University of Notre Dame physicist, tested 43 different pieces of turnout gear. He told The Inquirer that he found the highest levels of PFAS that he’d ever seen in a textile; some of the chemicals even glommed onto the hands of Peaslee’s students.
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