Fire Department Service Announcement

Bulletin #48, State Take Back Programmes

As announced in 2021, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) launched a programme to collect Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) foam from Indiana fire agencies.¹ The ‘following are the types of foam qualified for the state’s free disposal programme:

• Any foam manufactured before 2003
• Any foam where the date of manufacture is unknown
• Any foam with the following acronyms on its label: AFFF, AR-AFFF, FFFP, AF-FFFP, FP, FPAR
• Any foam that is unlabelled
• Any foam mixed with other foams’²

During the Rhode Island AFFF take-back programme, the state reported: ‘Every container was inspected, and each different brand was sampled by EPA for their analytical library. The analytical library provides an inventory of different types of AFFF to help fingerprint future sources of various mixtures, combinations and ratios (cocktails) of PFAS found in the environment.’³

Foam Exposure Committee: Contact Vicki Quint at codepfas@gmail.com

Notes

1. Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), www.in.gov/dhs/files/IDHS-PFAS-Foam-Collection-Poster.pdf

2. ibid.

3. RI DEM Office of Emergency Response, Oil Spill Prevention, Administration Response (OSPAR) Fund) Annual Report, FY 2020, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, p. 7, www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/emerre/ospar/osparfy20.pdf