This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Over more than five decades, a single chemical manufacturer enjoyed the exclusive production of a PFAS compound utilized in water-repellent treatments.
Another company manufactured a different compound from this class of “forever chemicals” from 2002 to 2013. By then, it had already been using this compound in its Teflon-branded consumer products for many decades, including the turnout gear used by firefighters to avoid exposure to the hazards of their profession.
Yet another manufacturer used PFAS-containing coatings to produce the fabric that lines firefighters’ protective gear with an inner moisture barrier.
All three businesses — 3M Company, EIDP, Inc. and its DuPont affiliates, and W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. — are named as defendants in a class action lawsuit filed by the city of Keene and the town of Londonderry in federal court on Tuesday. The municipalities argue in their complaint that replacing turnout gear with PFAS-free equipment has come at “significant public expense” and are seeking to recover those costs.
Turnout suits consist of pants, coats, respirators and boots designed to be heat resistant, flame retardant, water repellent and durable. A suit costs approximately $4,000, according to the complaint, and most departments provide each firefighter with two suits.
Outfitting all of New Hampshire’s 5,900 firefighters with PFAS-free turnout gear would cost a staggering $47 million.
“Turnout gear is specifically designed, manufactured, marketed and sold to keep firefighters safe, even when experiencing the hazardous conditions inherent in firefighting,” the complaint reads. “[The] defendants knew or should have known that, through normal use, wear, abrasion, laundering, and handling, PFAS can be released from the turnout gear and migrate to the inner layers of the gear that come into close and repeated contact with firefighters’ skin.”
PFAS accumulates in the human body and is linked to increased cancer risk, immune system suppression and some reproductive health issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognize cancer as the leading cause of death among firefighters.
The suit also names turnout gear manufacturers Fire-Dex, LLC, Lakeland Industries, Inc. and Morning Pride Manufacturing LLC.
Keene and Londonderry both purchased personal protective equipment for their firefighting forces, which the municipalities allege the defendants “failed to adequately warn” them contained PFAS and, as such, “was not suitable to protect firefighters’ health, safety and physical well-being,” according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs are demanding that their suit be resolved with a jury trial.
Earlier this month, a federal judge allowed a similar lawsuit to move forward in Connecticut, where a dozen individual firefighters and 13 firefighting union organizations have been pursuing claims against 3M and DuPont on the basis that PFAS-contaminated gear increased their cancer risk.
