For decades, firefighters used a foam that contained PFAS, or forever chemicals, that can cause cancer and other illnesses. Now a “PFAS Annihilator” can destroy the toxic chemical in the foam.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Firefighters don’t always rely on water to battle fires. For decades, they’ve also used a firefighting foam called AFFF to put out oil and gas fires. The problem is that foam has high concentrations of PFAS commonly called forever chemicals. PFAS come with health risks if humans are exposed. Some states have placed restrictions on using the foam. In Ohio, the state is working to destroy the foam by using a pioneering technology. Adriana Martinez-Smiley from member station WYSO reports.
ADRIANA MARTINEZ-SMILEY, BYLINE: For 20 years, Lieutenant Jason Brockmeyer has worked at Franklin Township Fire Department in Ohio. He says the crew was often called to fight highly dangerous flammable liquid fires.
JASON BROCKMEYER: We were considered the experts.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: That’s because the township fire department had 1,000 gallons of AFFF on hand, given to them by nearby fuel storage facilities.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRETRUCK ENGINE IDLING)
BROCKMEYER: So AFFF was always kept in the truck.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: The truck is called a foam response unit vehicle. That all changed in 2024, when Ohio started its AFFF takeback program. It’s part of the state’s larger effort to mitigate the spread of PFAS, since research links those chemicals to cancer and other health problems. Brockmeyer says when Ohio started the program, fire departments throughout the state jumped at the opportunity to hand over their firefighting foam.
BROCKMEYER: And we took it out to the state fire marshal’s office. They took all that product back.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: The Ohio EPA director, John Logue, says their agency administers the AFFF takeback program. He says the foam was in widespread use before anyone knew how dangerous it was.
JOHN LOGUE: Part of it (ph) was getting our arms around is, how much is out there across Ohio? How much is in storage? Where is it? What kind do they have?
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Logue says Ohio collected nearly 14,000 gallons of AFFF in the spring of 2024 and sent it to a company that’s found a way to destroy PFAS in the foam. Revive Environmental is a spinoff company of the scientific research nonprofit Battelle, which has a contract with the state of Ohio to carry out the takeback program. Revive’s CEO, David Trueba, says the company uses a device it calls the PFAS annihilator. He says it’s one of the first technologies known to transform the foam into water with undetectable levels of PFAS.
(SOUNDBITE OF PFAS ANNIHILATOR PUMPS RUNNING)
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: In a tour of the company’s plant in Ohio, Trueba stands next to an annihilator.
DAVID TRUEBA: So what you’re hearing right now is the sound of pumps and equipment feeding different chemicals in the system.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: The process uses pressure and heat to break the chemical bonds that make PFAS so strong. Trueba holds up a small container of what comes out.
TRUEBA: This looks like clean water ’cause it’s exactly what it is, clean water that can be processed through a existing sewer system for wastewater treatment, PFAS-free.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Samples from every processed batch are sent to a third-party testing facility to ensure it meets the requirements of the City of Columbus’ wastewater permit and federal limits on PFAS before it’s sent down the drain.
TRUEBA: Rainwater, storm water, sink water from your house – we send it down there because it’s just as safe to use now, from a PFAS standpoint.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Now the Ohio EPA is trying to find funds to pay to destroy thousands more gallons of foam still registered in the state. At least three other states – New Hampshire, North Carolina and New Jersey – have instituted AFFF takeback programs as well to keep a dangerous substance out of the environment. For NPR News, this is Adriana Martinez-Smiley in Dayton, Ohio.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAY IWAR SONG, “REFLECTION STATION”)
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