THE NATURE OF TOXICANTS MOVING ACROSS THE LAYERS OF FIRE SUITS

The recent publication revealed that firefighters in their everyday activities and training are exposed to mixtures of carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic compounds, despite donning full personal protective equipment (PPE) and a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). Our understanding of how these toxicants from hot fire effluent move through the PPE and SCBA is limited. The purpose of this preliminary study is to investigate the chemical nature of toxicants that may permeate through fabric layers of protective fire suits. To achieve this, a small-scale laboratory set-up was used to simulate the exposure to fire effluent, generated by smouldering combustion, of two new fire suit ensembles. After completion of testing, the collected condensates were analysed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS). The initial findings suggest that the hot fire condensate was highly acidic and contained a range of toxicants including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), carcinogens and potential carcinogens including tetradecane; phenanthrene; pyrene; polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-126; 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD); 1,1,1-trichloroethane; polychlorophenol and bromochloroacetic acid. Both tested ensembles were found to be effective in stopping the permeation of these toxicants through three layers of protective suits.