I recently came across an Instagram profile of a group of Plymouth firefighters training for the Firefighter Challenge. The Firefighter Challenge is a nationwide sporting event in which firefighters are required to wear turn out gear while engaging in a series of simulated firefighting tasks. In the Instagram posts, Plymouth firefighters wear full turn out gear to work out (off duty) using the hoses, stairs, dummies etc. associated with fire drills.
However, the IAFF (International Association of Firefighters) has issued a Safety Advisory stating that turn out gear contains PFAS, “forever chemicals” linked to cancer and should only be worn when necessary i.e. during all phases of firefighting. When I asked the Instagram firefighters whether the gear, they were wearing in their posts was PFAS free, I did not receive an answer and was eventually blocked from the site.
Like all MA communities Plymouth is required to purchase PFAS free turn out gear for its firefighters by January 2027. A set of turn out costs upwards of $3500 and each firefighter is expected to have two sets to account for cleaning between firefighting events. Plymouth has not yet purchased PFAS free gear and, as Quincy, MA recently found, there is no guarantee new gear will not contain PFAS.
The IAFF has successfully lobbied many states and communities across the USA for presumptive “occupational cancer” benefits that include the line of duty death benefits most of us associate with a loss of life while firefighting and full tax-free pay while out on leave for treatment of cancer. The presumption means that any firefighter who gets cancer is presumed to have it because of their job unless a medical board deems the diagnosis unrelated.
Since the IAFF and our legislature have accepted the idea that firefighters are getting cancer and dying of it because of the PFAS, and other chemicals, found in turn out gear and released during a fire from the products ubiquitous in our homes, then the casual wearing of turn out gear for working out and sporting events by some Plymouth firefighters is irresponsible. It should be prohibited and not left up to individual firefighters.
Our Select Board and town meeting members need to protect the taxpayers of Plymouth against future and costly claims of “occupational cancer” by instituting a policy like that of Foxboro Ma, which limits the wearing of turn out gear to calls for structural fires, vehicle fires, and natural gas odors. Like the prohibition against smoking by firefighters, any wearing of gear contrary to the policy should be grounds for dismissal. As Superman once said, being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. Nor does it mean you can do whatever you want.
– Linda MacDonald