Environmental and health effects of fire fighting foams

The study aims at increasing the knowledge regarding the chemicals firefighters and the environment are exposed to during use of firefighting foams. Different foams and extinguishing methods are studied with respect to content and formation of hazardous chemicals during extinguishing fires. The project has been divided into the following objectives ;

1. perform chemical characterization of selected foams,
2. pilot study of internal exposure of highly fluorinated chemicals among fire fighters,
3. study the formation of hazardous chemicals when fighting fires using different techniques and foam products,
4. evaluate the results with respect of fire fighters occupational exposure and impact on the environment, and
5. communicate information from the study with the profession.

The study is performed with mass spectrometric analysis, ecotoxicological analysis and exposure measurements of a large number of different chemical classes.