Why use CAF in ARFF?
Aviation has always been an industry with an increased potential for fire danger since powered aircraft have been used. Firefighting has an established history within this industry, since the first scheduled airline flights took place in the early 20th century.…
Fire Department Service Announcement
Bulletin #66, Precursors ‘All fluorinated firefighting foams characterised to date contain polyfluorinated precursors to the regulated PFAS, so conventional analysis such as the use of EPA methods 533 and 537.1 cannot assess the concentrations of principle PFAS in most fluorinated…
How are you planning to get your fire department out of PFAS?
States are utilizing action on PFAS containing firefighting foams with take-back programs given the lack of federal direction. According to BCLP (Bryan Cave Leighton Paisler), a law firm keeping up with state regulations, ‘33 states have either enacted or proposed…
Fire Department Service Announcement
Bulletin #61, PFAS crisis management The Foam Exposure Committee recommends the following actions because there is no way presently to remove PFAS from the human body: Identify your fire department’s current firefighting foam product – does it contain PFAS? Stop…
Fire Department Service Announcement
Bulletin #57, Prop 65 Awareness As fire departments are working through obtaining a ‘clean’ foam, they should be aware of California Proposition 65 (Prop 65). This law came into effect in 1986 with the intention to allow consumers to make…
Fire Department Service Announcement
Bulletin #56: Multidistrict Litigations Because there are so many PFAS-related lawsuits occurring, the ‘Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigations determined that the AFFF cases filed involved common questions of law and fact such that centralization of the cases was appropriate.’1 Any…
Fire Department Service Announcement
International entities using PFAS-free firefighting foams, Bulletin #37 International entities Location Year Auckland Airport Auckland, New Zealand 2019 1 All 27 major Australian airports including Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade (changed over in 2014) Australia 2018 2 Bristol Airport Bristol, England,…
Removing PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ will be a costly undertaking for fire services, but help is at hand
A recent Environmental Protection Association (EPA) report, prepared by Sweco, shows the scale of the challenge when it comes to addressing the use of PFAS-containing fire-fighting foam in Ireland. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals commonly used in…
Use of foam for firefighting in tank farms of the oil and petrochemical industry – Part 2
Part One of this article described the typical incident scenarios at tank farm fires and presented foam as the most suitable extinguishing agent together with the firefighting equipment most commonly used. In Part Two we look at foam concentrate proportioning…
Firefighting foam action in Wisconsin
Water contamination issues from PFAS are creating pressure on the fire service to make changes in toxic AFFF products. PFAS contamination of drinking water is threatening people’s health in many communities worldwide. Firefighters have been and continue to be placed…