Dear Massachusetts AG Campbell, Please Sue Turnout Gear Makers for the Following ‘Deceptive Practices’ Relative to Firefighter Turnout Gear and PFOA.
… Plenty more Massachusetts specific actions, this is the tip of the spear..
November 6th, 2023 Massachusetts Senator Mike Moore advised Beacon Hill lawmakers he was initiating a ‘sign-on’ letter seeking the Commonwealth join the lawsuit Worcester Firefighters initiated.
In days it had over 100 signatures.
THE LAWSUIT https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2022/02/15/worcester-firefighters-cancer-file-suit-against-gear-makers-chemical-giants-over-pfas-dupont-3-m/6670010001/
THE COMPLAINT
The Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law
The North American firefighting PPE market generated $896.0 million in revenue in 2022
PFAS-free turnout gear demand and the upcoming regulatory guidelines will drive turnout gear’s growth in North America.
AG Campbell, please investigate the following Massachusetts specific actions, inactions, and obstructions as to whether the following are ‘deceptive’.
IN 1980 DuPont KNEW PFOA WOULD PERMEATE PPE.
MASSACHUSETTS BASED NFPA.
This calamity did not happen without the voting members of the NFPA, the manufacturers, who knew or should have known that the gear was saturated with PFOA, PFAS, and when to obscene lengths to obstruct the front line (firefighters) from acquiring any shred of self protection.
The ‘Safety Standards statement, ‘meets or exceeds NFPA Standard 1971’ for every purchase order written in MA Turnout Gear and AFFF. Captured by the parties named in the Marchett v 3M et al complaint:
Regarding ‘WARNING LABELS’. There are none.
Manufacturers voted and wrote into standards that there will be ‘no warning labels’. Why? In order to protect themselves. This is where the cross reference should begin. DuPont knew in 1980 PFOA would permeate PPE. DuPont was a voting member of the NFPA Structural Firefighting Committe which voted this into effect.
2005 ~ United Steelworkers Union (the union workers in the DuPont plants) grew alarmed at the C8 health impacts they were seeing. They hired Massachusetts Attorney Lewis Sanford to investigate. He did. The report is stunning. USW acused W.L. Gore, DuPont and others of ‘failure to warn’ and demanded all end users be ‘warned’ of the PFOA concerns. No warning ever came.
REGARDING AFFF ~ WHY NO ONE WARNED THE FRONT LINE.
THE NFPA WAS THE SHEILD. THE MANUFACTURERS COULD WRITE THE STANDARDS AND NOT MENTION TOXICITY.
March 2023, IAFF SUES THE NFPA for holding firefighters hostage in a fallacious xenon light test, keeping them encased in Teflon from neck to feet.
ACTIONS DIRECTLY TO to Worcester Mass firefighters:
Lion Gear orchestrated a brazen attack on a Massachusetts firefighter and his wife to silence the activist. Lion Gear’s VP of Government Affairs was willing to lure in anyone they could that was messing up the gravy train. Thankfully, Fire Engineering’s Editor in Chief, Bobby Halton tipped me off:
Actions by Manufacturers
VP of DuPont advised the EPA to NOT allow PFOA into Prop 65 legislation. DuPont sat on NFPA 1971 for Structural PPE, and was telling the EPA at the same time to not mention PFOA.
deadly Zonyl, and DuPont knew it. One chemist retired in disgust.
Deceptive Science spewed as fact finding:
Lion Gear: Nine days after Station Pride’s article, The Real Cancer in Your Gear’ Lion Gear and others began circulating emails and non-firefighter textile science articles downplaying the amount of chemicals in turnout gear. Twenty days after the article, Lion Gear introduced the firefighter cancer initiative; ‘Not In Our House’.
DuPont ~ Chemours VP Mark Vergnano, rose through the ranks of DuPont’s PPE division — all while DuPont sat on NFPA 1971 remaining silent on PFOA.
January 10th, 2024. Congressman James McGovern, Environmental Working Group, International Association of Firefighters, Last Call Foundation, and Ethereal Films premiered, ‘Burned~ Protecting the Protectors on Capitol Hill.
When asked by EWG’s Sr VP of Government Affairs, “what needs to be done on Capitol Hill to protect firefighters on this issue?” My reply was, “we’ve now written laws mandating that the gear purchased must be PFAS free ~
“you must do as Senator Mike Moore of Worcester, Mass is urging AG Campbell to do: Sue them. Sue them. Sue them. Not one more dime of profits off the backs of firefighters.
Please. This has gone on long enough. Join the lawsuit.
d.c. 1/14/2024