In the clearing stands a boxer
Diane Cotter is making the case for banning PFAS in firefighters’ turnout gear
By Pat Elder
October 7, 2022
Diane and Paul Cotter
Diane Cotter is a fighter, a poetic figure, an American heroine, like David of old, armed with a slingshot, fighting Goliath.
Paul Simon knew her kind.
The Boxer – Paul Simon
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by her trade
And she carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid her down
And cut her 'til she cried out
In her anger and her shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains
James Thurber also knew her. Diane is like Rex, the powerful dog in Thurber's "Snapshot of a Dog." (The New Yorker, 1935)
He was a tremendous fighter, but he never started fights.
He never went for a dog's throat but for one of its ears
(that teaches a dog a lesson), and he would get his grip,
close his eyes, and hold on. He could hold on for hours.
Diane’s husband and high school sweetheart, Paul Cotter, was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in November of 2014. The doctors said he needed surgery or he wouldn’t survive. It sent lightning and thunder through them.
Paul worked as a Worcester firefighter up until the day before his January, 2015 surgery. It was the end of his firefighting career.
Diane and Paul had known firefighters in the Worcester Fire Department who had also been afflicted with various cancers, including many with prostate cancer. It was a haunting thought that needed time to sort out - something for Diane’s “to do” list.
In the clearing stands a boxer.
Paul has a list of three dozen firefighters in his department with various cancers, especially prostate cancer. It wasn’t until 2017 when Diane began to consider the possibility that per-and poly fluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS might be causing firefighters to get sick.
Erin Brockovich, another heroic Simon-Thurber favorite, first told Diane about the potential for the PFAS-laden turnout gear to cause cancer. Diane’s “to do” list grew exponentially. She had a host of serious questions for the makers of the turnout gear, scientists working on PFAS, local, state, and federal lawmakers, union officials and various firefighting associations.
She was stonewalled by everyone. “What could this gal know?” Diane was summarily dismissed, but, like Rex, she never let go.
Turnout gear manufacturers refused to provide Diane information on the chemical composition of their protective clothing. It’s like that with the foam, too. It’s “proprietary information” companies like to say. That may be because they don’t want their poisons to be easily identified in the event regulatory agencies started – you know – regulating.
Diane figured this was a crucial component to proving her contentions. She reached out to many in the scientific community who didn’t have the time for her. “What could this gal know?”
Diane contacted Dr. Graham Peaslee, an experimental nuclear physicist at the University of Notre Dame, who said he’d try to help. Dr Peaslee discovered extremely high levels of PFAS in the turnout gear - the most highly fluorinated textiles he’d ever examined. A subsequent 2020 peer-reviewed study from Peaslee that Diane helped to fund, confirmed his initial findings.
Peaslee said he expects future studies will uncover additional health concerns. He said it’s particularly concerning that the most prevalent cancers firefighters get, like leukemia and prostate cancer, are ones that arise from weakened immune systems. PFAS compounds in the turnout gear are known to be “endocrine disrupters” that interfere with the body’s ability to fight disease. High PFAS levels in people have also been linked to poor Covid outcomes.
Perhaps most alarming for firefighters was the finding that the material closest to a firefighter’s skin appeared to gather more PFAS concentrations with age. That meant that PFAS was likely shedding from the moisture barrier and outer shell through use. PFAS may enter the bloodstream through skin contact/absorption.
Fortunately, firefighters are now able to test their blood for the presence of PFAS, while the National Academies of the Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has just produced guidance with an emphasis on occupationally exposed firefighters.
Firefighters must be encouraged or required to have their blood tested and they must be informed of their rights when they test their blood for PFAS. Vulnerable firefighters work in a poisonous and highly litigious environment. They’ve got to take names and notes. They’ve got to take care of themselves.
Paul and Diane had no illusions while they set out to do battle with the firefighter’s union, a handful of the nation’s most powerful companies, and different regulatory agencies. The union turned out to be their greatest rival. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), under the control of General President Harold Schaitberger, didn’t want to hear about PFAS in turnout gear. 324,000 union members wouldn’t be hearing about it from the command. After Diane clashed with the union boss the union closed ranks and the Cotters were shunned. Union operatives bashed Diane on Twitter. Diane says she received a call from a union mediator who said she would be forgiven if she apologized to the union.
It ain’t gonna happen. The fighter still remains.
During a presentation by the IAFF on January 21, 2020: Toxic Substances and the Fire Fighter: The IAFF Fights Back, the union argued that the PFAS used in turnout gear does not pose a threat to the health of firefighters. In brief, the IAFF said that the PFAS used in the protective clothing has a large molecular structure that is incapable of passing through the cell wall.
The US District Court complaint discussed below says firefighters pass PFAS through “skin contact/absorption, ingestion (e.g., hand-to-mouth contact) and/or inhalation.” Diane called the IAFF claims “absolute gaslighting.”
IAFF boss Schaitberger retired at the end of 2021, although Diane continues to wonder about connections between gear and chemical manufacturers and the former union boss. Diane’s relationship with the union immediately improved when Ed Kelly assumed the top post. Kelly got the memo on PFAS in the turnout gear and the union has done an about-face on the issue. Now the IAFF opposes PFAS in gear.
But that’s only half the battle. The boxer knows title matches last for 12 rounds and we’re about halfway.
PFAS is still in the turnout gear. The moisture barrier is still 30% Teflon. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) won’t budge on PFAS in turnout gear and they have the final say nationwide.
The NFPA defends a test of firefighting gear that only PFAS-laden Teflon can satisfy. Diane says the test serves the interests of the industry. The IAFF under Kelly has petitioned the NFPA to remove the test but the NFPA has declined. Hundreds of thousands of firefighters across the country must continue to wear safety equipment that has been shown to contain carcinogenic PFAS.
Rep. James McGovern (D MA-02) calls for
criminal inquiries and legal action
McGovern first learned of the carcinogenic turnout gear from Diane Cotter. “She told me nobody was listening to her. She said people just didn’t want to believe what she was saying,” he recalled. Today, McGovern says federal and state prosecutors ought to be criminally investigating the companies that released PFAS into the environment. “There needs to be legal action moving forward. Attorney generals and federal investigators need to look at what’s happened here,” he said.
Paul Cotter joins in US District Court case
In February, 2022 Paul Cotter joined a group of 16 Massachusetts firefighters who filed suit in US District Court in Boston over the presence of PFAS in their turnout gear. All of the firefighters, who retired from or are currently working for fire departments in Worcester, Boston, Brockton, Fall River and Norwood, have been diagnosed with or treated for cancer, according to the lawsuit.
The group is suing for damages after discovering elevated levels of PFAS chemicals in their blood in December. 24 manufacturers are named as defendants, including 3M Company. Chemguard E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Inc., The Chemours Company, L.L.C, Tyco Fire Products, L.P, and W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
The complaint alleges: “Defendants knowingly and willfully manufactured, designed, marketed, sold, and distributed chemicals and/or products containing PFAS for use within the State of Massachusetts when they knew or reasonably should have known that the Firefighter Plaintiffs would repeatedly inhale, ingest and/or have dermal contact with these harmful compounds during firefighting training exercises and in firefighting emergencies, and that such exposure would threaten the health and welfare of firefighters exposed to these dangerous and hazardous chemicals.”
The complaint addresses the pathways to human ingestion: “When exposed to heat, PFAS chemicals in the turnouts off-gas, break down, and degrade into highly mobile and toxic particles and dust, exposing firefighters to PFAS chemicals, particles and dust, including through skin contact/absorption, ingestion (e.g., hand-to-mouth contact) and/or inhalation. Further firefighter exposure to these highly mobile and toxic materials occurs through normal workplace activities, because particles or dust from their turnouts spread to fire vehicles and fire stations, as well as firefighters’ personal vehicles and homes.”
As far back as 1980 DuPont officials recognized that continued exposure to PFAS was not tolerable for its employees.
The suit also mentions dust as a pathway to ingestion. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Substances showed that dust in the homes of people in Martinsburg, West Virginia showed more than ten million parts per trillion of PFAS compounds. The homes were close to fire stations on base that used the chemicals in turnout gear and firefighting foams. This suggests that homes adjacent to municipal firehouses across the country may also be laced with the carcinogenic chemical dust.
Things are moving in Diane’s direction. Chief Bobby Halton, Editor in Chief of the influential Fire Engineering website, defended Diane in a July, 2022 statement, "Not only was she alone, she was persecuted - and yet persistent - and she was vilified. There were organized attacks - and I know that for a fact because I was cajoled to join one, and I said, "no, I'm not interested,” and so, there were people who were trying to discredit her relentlessly.”
This is changing now that this fight has entered the later rounds. The crowd is on Diane’s side, hoping for a decisive knockout.
More
Worcester Telegram - Special report: Cancer-stricken Worcester firefighter and his wife suspect gear to blame https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2021/11/11/enemy-up-close-cancer-stricken-worcester-firefighter-paul-cotter-and-wife-diane-cotter-suspect-gear/6109633001/
Bloomberg Law - Effort to Rid Fire Gear of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Fails Key Vote https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/effort-to-rid-fire-gear-of-forever-chemicals-fails-key-vote
Men's Health: https://www.menshealth.com/health/a37624731/cancer-firefighter-gear-pfas/
Telegram & Gazette https://safetycomponents.com/safety-components-pf-zero-durable-water-repellent-finish-brings-new-performance-to-ppe-fabrics/
CBS News – Link to US District Court Case https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/i/cbslocal/wp-content/uploads/sites/3859903/2022/02/document7.pdf