Airport_Business_December2019-January2020 - 14

ARFF

AUTHOR Lynleigh Love, Chris Crosby

The Evolving Concern of
PFAS at Airports

Understanding the risks and issues with PFAS-based firefighting foam and
alternatives can mitigate health risks in your community.
PER- AND polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) consist
of thousands of man-made chemicals that have
many manufacturing and industrial applications.
PFAS have been used over the last 65 years to make
everyday products more resistant to stains, grease
and water.

PFAS are used to keep food from
sticking to cookware, to make sofas and
carpets resistant to stains, or to make
clothes and mattresses more waterproof.
It's found in cleaners, textiles, leather,
paper, paints and wire insulation.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
LYNLEIGH LOVE

Lynleigh Love is a Professional Geologist
and Senior Project Manager at SCS
Engineers in Long Beach, California.
She has 23 years of experience with
environmental site assessment and
remediation of contaminated soils and
groundwater in Southern California.
She manages due diligence projects for
property redevelopment and addresses
legacy contamination. She is experienced in expert witness
litigation and has worked with several state environmental
protection agencies with the preparation of statewide
litigation projects against large corporations.

CHRIS CROSBY

Chris Crosby is a Project Manager at
SCS Engineers in San Diego, California.
He has over 13 years of professional
experience in the environmental
consulting field. He successfully manages
complex environmental site assessments,
subsurface investigations, and remediation
projects to help navigate regulatory
requirements and meet client objectives.
He routinely investigates a variety of constituents of concern at
properties with soil, groundwater, and vapor intrusion impacts
due to releases from historical site uses and implements
appropriate remediation technologies to restore properties to be
protective of human health and the environment.

PFAS are also key components in
aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF),
which is used to fight petroleum-based
fires at aviation and manufacturing
facilities. For decades, AFFF containing
PFAS has been used extensively at airports
throughout the world to protect the safety
of passengers, crew and others. The U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
requires that commercial airports train
with, calibrate equipment with, and
use the best performing AFFF fire
suppression systems. AFFF is required to
be used at airports and must be certified
to meet strict performance specifications,
including the U.S. Department of Defense
Military Specifications. The chemical
properties of PFAS is what makes AFFF
so effective at suppressing fires. In effect,
AFFF forms a dense "foam blanket" that
prevents oxygen from reaching the fire
and smothers it.

Why are PFAS
dangerous?
Health studies have shown PFAS present
risks to human health. Exposure to PFAS
exceeding certain levels may result in
adverse health effects, including cancer
(e.g., testicular, kidney), developmental
effects to fetuses during pregnancy or to
breastfed infants (e.g., low birth weight,

accelerated puberty, skeletal variations),
liver effects (e.g., tissue damage), immune
effects (e.g., antibody production and
immunity), thyroid effects, and other
effects (e.g., cholesterol changes).
PFAS are environmentally persistent
and don't easily break down. These
compounds are found globally in
the environment including bodies of
water, soil, dust and in the air. They
bioaccumulate (accumulate in individual
organisms) and biomagnify (accumulate
in the food chain) and are consequently
found in most human blood. PFAS do
not readily degrade in the environment
to constituents that are not PFAS.

From AFFF to the
food chain
PFAS can travel long distances, move

14 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020
Airport_Business_December2019-January2020

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