The Reckless Rush to Burn AFFF
David Bond, Associate Director for CAPA, along with students Ahmad Yassir '20 and Cedric Lam ‘22, have launched a website that compiles all known information about the burning of millions of pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF) by the US military.
The website is the first to compile all of the information about this operation and make it publicly available—regarding the rush for the U.S. military to incinerate 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF), a toxic fire-fighting foam linked to a host of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility. There is no evidence that industrial incineration destroys these toxic chemicals, and it was burned between 2016-2020. Much of this ill-advised and unproven burning of AFFF happened in environmental justice communities.
“Defying common sense and environmental expertise, the US military has enrolled the health of millions of Americans in a harebrained toxic experiment. For the first time, this website brings the entire crackpot operation into the unflattering light of reality,” said David Bond.
This work has gained much coverage in regional and national media, including an in-depth article written by Bond for The Guardian. Additional coverage has been included in:
- WAMC Coverage here, here, and here
- Times Union
- NBC 13
- CBS 6
- ABC 10
- Common Dreams
- Veterans Today
And more to come as the work unfolds. To find out more about the data and findings of this research, visit the Understanding PFOA project where this work unfolded.
