Thousands of individual lawsuits have been consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL) against the corporations that make aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), a type of firefighting foam that was filled with per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), synthetic chemicals that are now known to be dangerous to human health. Here are 8 things that you should know about the AFFF firefighting foam lawsuits, according to mass tort lawyer Dr. Nick Oberheiden.
1. AFFF Caused Lots of Chemical Contamination AFFF is one of the types of foam that firefighters use to put out flames. There are two classes of AFFF firefighting foam: Class A firefighting foams rely primarily on the water in the foam to put out the flames, though they are still substantially more effective than just using straight water.
They have far fewer chemicals in them and are used more often than Class B foams. Of Class B foams, there are two types: Both foams work the same basic way: By blanketing flammable liquids, they prevent the fuel from catching fire and extinguish any lit fuels by suffocating the flames of the oxygen that they need in order to keep burning. This works far better than water for these types of fires, as the flaming liquids are lighter than water and would float on its surface and continue to burn.
AFFF, however, is a fluorinated type of foam. That fluorine comes in the form of a PFAS compound. There are hundreds of types of these compounds, but they are all based on one of the strongest chemic.