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Novel Fluorinated Compounds Discovered In Firefighters' Blood

Posted by Soulskill on from the prices-paid dept.

ckwu writes: Perfluorinated compounds help firefighting foams rapidly flow over flaming liquids such as gasoline and jet fuel, cooling and quenching fires. But despite environmental scientists' concerns about these possibly toxic compounds, researchers don't know the identity of many of the chemicals in the mixtures on the market. For the first time, a new study borrows a medical research tool to pinpoint fluorochemicals in the blood of firefighters, identifying novel compounds that have never before been publicly reported.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. What, no MSDS? by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "researchers don't know the identity of many of the chemicals in the mixtures on the market."

    Doesn't pass the smell test.

    1. Re:What, no MSDS? by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't know- I went looking for an MSDS for a modern firefighting foam, and the composition listed is:

      Polyethylene glycol: 2.5-10%
      Other components below reportable levels: Greater than 90%

      Now, this is for Ansul-3 Fluoroprotein foam concentrate. It definitely contains some sort of fluorinated compound (fluoroprotein foam agents are at least known to contain a fluorinated surfactant and hydrolyzed protein); the MSDS has absolutely no mention of what it is. In the Environmental Handling section, all it says is "An environmental hazard cannot be excluded in the event of unprofessional handling or disposal." Nothing about how fluorinated surfactants are persistent environmental contaminants or can cause kidney damage in high doses. It is simply written like innocuous polyethylene glycol is the only component. I've seen material safety data sheets for shampoo that have far more information.

      Now, in the specific case covered by the research paper, the "unknown compounds" aren't really that mysterious. They're all either metabolites, chemical precursors, or close chemical relatives (if you're making some some sort of octane derivative, you can expect some hexane to be in there too). And they're all given as 0.1%-1% of the main PFOS surfactant; certainly chemical manufacturers need to exert better control over their processes, minimize byproducts, perform long-term safety studies, etc. And that goes double for anyone making halogenated organic compounds, which now have a substantial record of turning out to be accumulative toxins. But I think if you look at many common manufactured products at trace levels with tandem mass spec, you're going to find some compounds that aren't in the literature.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
  2. Anarcho-capitalism out of control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The story here isn't some novel way to find chemical compounds in a substance by testing humans. That's cool, but the real story here is why the hell don't we know?

    We know our politicians in the US are able to be purchased by a high bidder, but are the companies providing firefighting compounds part of the bidders? This is the system that has given us unknown fracking compounds, manufactured doubt about climate change, and attempted coverups for oil and chemical spills. We should ask China how well that's working out for them.

  3. Re:Why don't they know? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not according to the article. It is a scare pamphlet about how 3m had a compound in foam that they removed in 2002 due to toxicity concerns and that the replacement must also be toxic because it doesn't have a specific name.

    Side effects of combustion are NEVER touched upon