![]() And it could potentially change my other family members. "It's a dangerous job and you know that, to know that his gear that's meant to protect him and keep him from harm harmed him and changed him, it makes me. Marchetti married into a firefighting family, so it was only natural his son would follow. It was the thing that I let my daughter dress up in because she wanted to look like mom," Mauldin said. "It was so ingrained in us it was a safety thing. None of them ever considered that wearing their turnout gear could be a risk. They are also seeking damages from companies that make PFAS and manufacture turnout gear. They joined a lawsuit filed in 2020 alleging that PFAS in their gear caused their illnesses. "From what I understand is it is just going to be there, and it just depends on how aggressive we take care of it, and how aggressive it - the cancer itself - gets," Stapp said.Īll three believe they would have been cancer-free if not for their uniforms. He has undergone radiation and hormone therapy for prostate cancer. Mauldin and Stelling are now cancer-free but retired San Jose Fire captain Dan Stapp is not. So for four years I battled, and I just couldn't stay on the job," she said. And then the fourth year the bladder cancer reoccurred. Retired San Jose, California fire investigator Teresa Mauldin battled multiple cancers. But lying there, helpless, trying to figure out what was going on, that was a whole 'nother game," said Stelling. I thought of myself as a pretty tough guy. "When I was laid out in that hospital bed for eight days, that was belittling to me. Marc Stelling, a fire captain for the City of Gilroy, California, found out he had stage one cancer after an accident caused a tumor on his kidney to burst. Since 2015, nearly three out of four firefighters added to the IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial have died from so-called occupational cancer. Meanwhile, the firefighting community is grappling with staggering rates of cancer. His research has been cited in the lawsuits. Subsequent studies co-authored by Peaslee confirmed the presence of PFAS in other turnout gear. The outer layer of this gear was really highly fluorinated and the moisture barrier's really highly fluorinated," he said. He had already been studying the presence of PFAS in the environment when the wife of another firefighter with prostate cancer convinced him to take a look at the turnout gear.Īt the nuclear research lab on campus, Peaslee's team analyzed 30 different sets of protective gear - noting an outer shell, a moisture barrier, and a thermal liner. "If they're inhaled or ingested by humans, they'll end up in your body and they'll stay there for many years." "They're called 'the forever chemicals' and once we manufacture some of them, they last forever, they just migrate through different systems," University of Notre Dame physics Professor Graham Peaslee said. And this gear was being supplied to us to protect us," Marchetti said. ![]() "These chemicals have been known to cause harm for a long time. Last year, a blood test revealed Marchetti's PFAS levels were significantly elevated above the general population. ![]()
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