QUINCY, Mass. — Firefighting gear that the city of Quincy purchased as PFAS-free has tested positive for the toxic “forever chemicals,” city officials announced on Aug. 21.
Mayor Thomas Koch said independent laboratory tests detected high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the new turnout gear, despite vendor assurances that the equipment contained none, WGBH reported. Quincy purchased the gear over the past two years to protect firefighters from PFAS-linked health risks, including certain types of cancer.
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“The new gear we bought, sold to us on the premise it had no PFAS in it, PFAS-free,” Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch said. “That’s how it was advertised; it was recently independently tested and came back highly positive with PFAS components in the gear.”
Only one of the 30 recently purchased suits has been tested so far. More are now being sent for analysis, Koch said.
Safety Components, the manufacturer that supplies fabric for Quincy’s turnout gear, says it eliminated PFAS from all of its textiles early in 2025. A spokesperson added that no fluorinated chemistries remain in the company’s facilities and that it is reviewing Quincy’s findings.
“Fluorine chemistry is not intentionally added in the manufacture of any Safety Components fabrics, including those used for firefighter turnout gear,” the spokesperson wrote. “The levels of fluorine detected by the testing performed by the City of Quincy were very low, and the source of the trace levels of fluorine detected has not been determined. Our latest testing of fabrics from our manufacturing facility and used in firefighter turnout gear showed no traces of fluorine.”
However, Notre Dame scientist Graham Peaslee, who analyzed Quincy’s gear, said the PFAS levels were far above trace amounts.
“Twenty parts per million is probably a trace amount,” Peaslee said. “We found something in there which is approaching a 10th of a percent, which is about, you know, over a thousand parts per a million or 2,000 parts per million, or something like that. So that’s not trace. That actually has some function. It will provide some water repellency and things like that.”
Peaslee tested one set of gear but expects the other 29 from the same batch to be contaminated as well.
The findings back the IAFF’s warning that firefighters must verify manufacturers’ claims. “We can’t just take their word,” IAFF President Edward Kelly said. “Independent tests are the only way to confirm our gear is free of hazardous chemicals.”
After years of IAFF lobbying, NFPA adopted Standard 1970 in October 2024, the first rule limiting PFAS and other toxins in turnout gear.
Has your department investigated whether your PPE contains PFAS? Has your process for future PPE purchases changed?
