Current, ex-firefighters battling illness due to PFAS urged to contact local union immediately
Due to the serious repercussions caused by exposure to polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals,” the Northern Marianas Islands Professional Firefighters Union is urging current or former firefighters facing serious health issues stemming from this exposure to contact them immediately.
In a meeting with the Local 5335 NMI Professional Firefighters Union vice president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. yesterday, he shared why the organization is specifically seeking out these frontliners.
With Aqueous Film-Forming Foam used as a firefighting foam that can thoroughly suppress flammable liquid fires, particularly those involving oil, gasoline, and jet fuel, recent discoveries have raised significant health and environmental concerns as its formulation often contains PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which can result in cancer, liver damage, thyroid and kidney diseases, and more.
Dela Cruz said that as a member of Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting, the AFFF Foam has been the agent of choice for sufficiently killing fuel fires for the past years.
“AFFF Foam stands for aqueous film forming foam. It’s the agent of choice for aircraft rescue firefighters, or even the regular fire department, to be able to fight against certain types of fires. For us at ARFF, we fight against jet fuel fires. If a jet fuel, lights and ignites, the fastest way to knock that out with an agent is AFFF Foam. We all know that AFFF Foam is bad. And they’re phasing out AFFF Foam right now. EPA and FAA’s recent agreement is to get us to phase that out.”
He shared that there has been more awareness since the discovery of the dangers of the chemical, but the local 5335, which is part of the International Association of Firefighters, is hoping to bring assistance to those servicemen here in the CNMI suffering from the effects of these chemicals. Especially those who were unknowingly affected.
“If you were a former firefighter in the CNMI, or a current firefighter in the CNMI, and you have been exposed to AFFF foam in any sort of way, even way back in the ’80s, you need to reach out to your local 5335 if you have any of the following diseases: If you have kidney disease, liver disease, ulcerative colitis, thyroid, thyroid disease, you need to contact me immediately, that way that we can get you in contact with our law firm in the States to get you into the AFFF claim. You have a chance to be able to be part of this claim if you have any of these diseases and you’re exposed to AFFF anytime in your fire service career. So, we’re trying to help out from that to make sure that you get the assistance that you need.”
Dela Cruz said that, so far, he has already met with individuals who have served that are experiencing the effects of AFFF.
“But we do have one claimant right now that I’ve reached out to that I know that has one of these and we’ve already got him in contact with our state law firm and he’s going through the process of it right now. And this is shocking because this is recent. He was a firefighter with us. So, I don’t know how many other firefighters have this because we all know that once we have cancer, once we have thyroid or that kind of stuff, we’re very hesitant to let people know. Some people don’t want to be known to have this and they’ll downplay it. But I’m here to let you know that you don’t have to tell everybody. You can contact me directly and we’ll get you the help that you guys need,” Dela Cruz shared.
“Our International Association of Firefighters contracted an external law firm and it’s my job to get them into that law firm to get directly into the suit. So, the IFF is leading the charge in multiple health issues categories in the states right now. They are actually suing the NFPA because people don’t know that the firefighting suits that they’ve manufactured for the past how many years have concentrated PFAS chemicals on the suit that causes cancer. So, our lead union is leading the lawsuit on that. So, they contracted an external counsel to be able to help out and lead the fight with the AFFF manufacturer lawsuit. This is what we’re trying to get them in contact with,” he added.
Dela Cruz shared that the NFPA stands for the National Fire Protection Association, which is in charge of certifying firefighters gear in the U.S.
“Anything that deals with firefighting certification to make sure that it meets international and state level federal standards is NFPA. However, NFPA failed to vet the manufacturers of the suit that they didn’t disclose that they had concentrated PFAS chemicals. Now that we know that PFAS is bad, this was a recent find, there was a fire department lawsuit and the IFF took over for that.”
He said that the law firm in the U.S. mainland handling these AFFF claims is the MotleyRice LLC Attorneys at Law. He shared that several other law firms were taking on these cases but the law firm IFF chose was contracted externally by the IFF to handle this directly on behalf of the IFF union members. But since it is external legal counsel it can also accommodate those former firefighters that were never part of the union, such as some in the CNMI with the unions still quite a new thing here.
Dela Cruz urges those facing the following to contact the NFPFU Local 5335 at (670)287-0891 as soon as possible and they will carry it out from there for the process.
• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Testicular cancer
• Ulcerative colitis
• Thyroid cancer
• Thyroid disease
Dela Cruz said that he’s sure that through the process they will be interviewed by the lawyers handling the specific cases, and from there, depending also on their categories, it can be determined how much they can be able to be compensated.
“The law firm that is handling this that’s in our coordination right now, they have over 10,000 plus cases and every single day they’re getting a lot of claims to vet and verify through right now.”
As to the AFFF issue Dela Cruz stated, “Well, I believe that, you know, the people that really need to know about AFFF is actually working at Aircraft Rescue Firefighting already, we’re well aware of this because that’s part of our job. However, the hard part about this is we don’t know who’s been affected that were past firefighters. That’s who we’re trying to reach out right now. The public should just know that the AFFF is handled accordingly with the highest federal standards up at the [Commonwealth Ports Authority]. But the issue is we just don’t know how bad the exposure is to people that were previously firefighters, whether it’s retired or they resigned. And we’ve had a lot of firefighters resign over the past 20 years at CPA to go to the States. So, this message is for those guys that need it, but if there’s DFEMS firefighters who have somehow been exposed to firefighting foam, anyone that’s been exposed is equal for this. But, yes, there is enough exposure for us to know that AFFF is very hazardous.”
Edward Dela Cruz Jr.
