Aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) represents a category of firefighting brokers used to extinguish flammable liquid fires. This specialised foam works by creating a movie that quickly spreads throughout the gas floor, suppressing vapors and stopping reignition. An occasion of coming into contact with these substances happens when firefighters use AFFF throughout coaching workouts, or when people work or reside close to areas the place AFFF has been deployed or saved. Such situations might result in the consumption or absorption of particular chemical substances discovered inside the foam.
Understanding the character of those interactions is essential as a result of potential long-term well being implications. Traditionally, AFFF was broadly adopted for its effectiveness in quickly controlling fires at airports, navy bases, and industrial services. Some great benefits of its fast suppression capabilities have been initially prioritized; nonetheless, subsequent analysis has raised issues concerning the persistence and potential bioaccumulation of sure per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) present in some AFFF formulations.