Fire Department Service Announcement

Bulletin #54, Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), the former ‘Gold Standard’

‘The delay in taking action appears to have been caused by the combination of a dysfunctional regulatory system, a dispirited federal agency, and the ability of manufacturers to delay restrictions on the use of hazardous products.’¹

Negatives of AFFF

• First patent in the early 1960s²
• AFFF ‘…created for shipboard testing’³
• Has not kept pace with changing of aviation fuels
• Has not kept pace with biofuels, i.e. E10, E15
• Has not kept pace with aircraft composite materials
• Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic⁴
• Fish kill^5,6
• Animal and human contamination⁶
• C6 should be treated as C8⁷
• ‘Important to keep full tanks. Foam concentrate sloshing around will turn concentrate into a froth. The greater the air space the worse it gets.’⁸
• ‘AR-AFFF concentrate may take weeks to calm down, if at all. This condition can cause VERY lean proportioning.’⁹
• AFFF blankets do not last as long as an F3 foam. Fluorine-free foams have a longer blanket time and thus would need to be re-applied less frequently.¹⁰
• AFFF is corrosive¹¹
• AFFF gels
• ‘Pressure-fed fuel fires and three-dimensional fuel fires are not able to be fully extinguished with AFFF alone – firefighters must augment the tactic by introducing dry chemical into the mixture to fully extinguish these types of fires, i.e. Purple K dry compound introduced into the water/foam stream from a fog nozzle has proven to aid in the extinguishment of these types of fires’¹²
• Does not work well on 3D fires; ‘is not effective on hydrocarbon fuels in motion (i.e. three dimensional fires)’¹³
• ‘Not good on running fuel fires’¹⁴

Positive of AFFF

• AFFF works well on pooled fuel fires. ‘Best on static fires that are contained in some manner.’¹⁴

FDSA Bulletins are posted at the Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) website under Safety Resources: fdsoa.org/Foam-Exposure-Info

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) is now posting FDSA Bulletins under their PFAS / Library, Firefighters & First Responders (inc military): cswab.org/pfas/pfas-library/

For more information, contact the Foam Exposure Committee at codepfas@gmail.com

References

1. ACS Publications, Environmental Science & Technology, Fool Me Once, David Sedlak, Editor-in-Chief, July 7, 2016, pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.6b03367
2. Orion, Fluorinated Fire Fighting Foams History, accessed Oct 25, 2021, www.orion-fire.com/technical/afff-history/
3. EWG, News & Insights, It’s Time To Switch to PFAS-Free Firefighting Foams, April 22, 2020, Fire Chief Randy Krause, Congressional Testimony video, www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/its-time-switch-pfas-free-firefighting-foams
4. Jensen Hughes, A Historical Review of Fluorinated Foam Firefighting Agents, Performance Requirements/Environmental Safeguards Review, CMDR (ret) John P. Farley, Naval Research Laboratory and Joseph L. Scheffey, P.E., Fire Protection Engineer, Jensen Hughes, 21^st American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition, March 2016, San Diego, CA, www.kappetijn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Presentatie-HUGHES-Review-of-AFFF-Requirements-2016-1.pdf
5. Environmental Aspects of AFFF and AR-AFFF, Written on Behalf of Ansul Incorporated by Dick Ottman, White Paper 1017, www.ansul.com/en/us/DocMedia/F-2003115.pdf
6. Environmental Issues Associated With Defence Use of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), Sonia Colville and Nicole McCarron, May 2003, www.kappetijn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Environmental-issues-AFFF-defence-mei-2003.pdf
7. Petrochemical Industry White Paper, Firefighting Foam Transition Guidance, October 2020, does not wish to be directly cited
8. “AFFF Fluorine Facts, Jim Cottrell, New England Fire Mechanics & Service Tech. Assn. Annual Luncheon Presentation 2013, www.combatsupportproducts.com/ewExternalFiles/AFFF%20Fluorine%20Facts%20Handout.pdf
9. ibid.
10. Industrial Fire World, Sweet Smell of Success, Anton Riecher, Winter 2014, www.solbergfoam.com/getattachment/8bf831ab-f717-4b82-bbd0-2e2cb14c34ff/Sweet-Smell-of-Success.aspx
11. Answers, Is Firefighting Foam Corrosive? Accessed March 10, 2022, www.answers.com/Q/Is_fire_extinguishing_foam_corrosive
12. Personal correspondence with Fire Chief Randy Krause, Seattle-Tacoma Airport, March 11, 2022
13. US Department of Transportation, Commodity Preparedness and Incident Management Reference Sheet, Petroleum Crude Oil, 09/2014, www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Petroleum_Crude_Oil_Reference_Sheet.pdf
14. ibid.