Airport Crash Rescue Units Are Among the Most Heavily Exposed to Harmful Firefighting Chemicals

Because of specialized foam used to battle jet fuel fires, firefighters at airports run some of the highest chemical exposure risks

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 - Emerging as one of the most extensively exposed groups in the continuing controversy over hazardous firefighting foam are airport crash rescue teams, sometimes known as Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) teams. For many years, these teams have depended on aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a very efficient material used in flammable liquid fire control. But growing scientific data now connects this foam to major health issues, especially given it contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Commonly known as forever chemicals, PFAS compounds do not break down in the environment or human body, which raises long-term safety questions. The problem has piqued increasing interest in legal claims, including consultations with a PFAS cancer attorney looking for responsibility. Dozens of former firefighters and ARFF staff members ow involved in PFAS cancer lawsuits all throughout the nation. The issues arise from ARFF crews constantly testing, cleaning, and storing the foams close to their equipment and work in addition to receiving training with AFFF. In airport operations, where rules originally demanded AFFF use for certification, the frequency and intensity of use may have caused these individuals to acquire greater degrees of hazardous exposure than city or rural firefighting teams.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that high blood levels have been discovered in airport firefighting teams and even minute quantities of certain PFAS in drinking water can be harmful. Studies on communities and businesses with documented PFAS exposure show higher rates of kidney, prostate, and testicular cancers; ARFF teams fit quite precisely this high-risk profile. Many airports have been sluggish to change even with federal recommendations urging a move away from AFFF. Part of the difficulty is the necessity for firefighting foams to satisfy rigorous performance criteria for extinguishing jet fuel blazes, which many more recent, PFAS-free substitutes still find difficult to reach. To further increase the exposure risk, crash rescue teams at big and small airports keep using legacy stockpiles of AFFF for live-fire drills and emergency readiness. Legal activists are pushing impacted employees to come out, undergo testing, and think about joining health monitoring programs as media attention and public scrutiny expand. The long-term effects could go beyond occupational disease and possibly include environmental contamination around airports from the regular discharge of PFAS-loaded foam during training activities and accident reactions. As litigation advances, they could generate demand for more general policy reforms in aviation safety standards. Although several airports have started changing their foam systems to fit safer substitutes, the practice is still not standard all over. More than just a workplace safety issue, the PFAS exposure problem in ARFF units is becoming a national public health concern with legal, environmental, and financial ramifications. This emphasizes the increased risk of PFAS exposure among airport accident rescue teams, who have over the years routinely used toxic firefighting foams. Because of their continuous interaction with AFFF including harmful forever chemicals, these teams are now under health and legal investigation. As new health data shows increasing cancer rates, many are looking to PFAS cancer lawyers to investigate legal action. EPA official recommendations affirm the risk of even low PFAS levels, therefore supporting the case for immediate modification in airport fire safety procedures and equipment.

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