Lawmakers Have More Evidence To Help Water Contamination Cancer Families Get Their Day In Court

Water Contamination Lawsuit News

The EPA now admits to 900 enormous toxic firefighting foam disasters, one approaching a 1 million gallon spill, at military installations and airports around the country

Thursday, March 17, 2022 - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that nearly 1000 incidences of toxic firefighting foam disasters occurred during the last 30 years. Firefighting foam does not decompose organically in the environment and can contaminate local drinking water supplies for decades. "The dataset, provided to the EPA by the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center, showed that there have been 897 spills or usage reports of aqueous form filming foam (AFFF), a material used to fight jet fuel fires at military bases and civilian airports." The exact number of incidences reported is 900, but that seems low. Every time a military, municipal, or airport firefighter trains they use firefighting foam. The number of 900 is more likely many times that amount. Fiirefighting foam is used to put out petroleum fires by smothering them, and then "cleaned up" by spraying water on it until it is diluted into the ground and eventually the groundwater. Millions of American families including young children may have been drinking tap water contaminated with forever per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS cancer lawsuits also target the makers of Gortex and Scotchgard anti-stain chemicals that are also considered forever chemicals.

A bill that has passed through the US House of Representatives this month included a pact that would allow families of US servicemen including those at Camp Lejeune Marine Base to sue the US government for failing to warn them of PFAS drinking water toxicity. The report by The Hill identified actual spills of firefighting foam but excluded its regular use. Military families that have one or members suffering from thyroid or testicular cancer should contact a forever chemicals lawyer and consider filing a lawsuit. While the number of spills at 900 may not seem daunting, the amount of each spill is staggering. Nearly 1 million gallons of firefighting foam was spilled at Melbourne Orlando International Airport in Florida in 1995, according to The Hill report. The next largest spills were a 40,000-gallon spill in Guntersville, Ala., in 1998, and a 100,000-gallon spill at an event in San Antonio Texas in 1992. the Department of Defense is responsible for most of the spills, however, the US Air Force told reporters that firefighting foam is the only way to extinguish petroleum fires and its use is mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at airports.

The release of the Defense Department firefighting foam spills gives lawmakers in the US Senate even more information they will need to pass the Honoring Our Pact Act and the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. The latter legislation would "correct unfair legal barriers unique to Marine families stationed at Camp Lejeune due to an anomaly in the application of North Carolina law in the federal court system (that prohibits cancer victims from suing the Federal government after a very short statute of limitations has expired.)

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