Maui County firefighters concerned within the response to the 2023 Maui wildfires had larger median summed concentrations of some perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) than different responders, in accordance with analysis revealed within the Feb. 6 concern of the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Catherine C. Beaucham, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues describe first responders’ exposures to PFAS after responding to wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, in August 2023, measured about one month after preliminary response. Particular person serum PFAS concentrations have been in comparison with the Nationwide Well being and Vitamin Examination Survey (NHANES) ninety fifth percentile concentrations for individuals aged 20 years and older.
The sum of seven PFAS was in comparison with the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Drugs (NASEM) scientific threshold, above which screening for most cancers and different opposed well being outcomes ought to be prioritized. Blood samples have been submitted by 258 Maui County workers, together with 178 firefighters.
The researchers noticed important variations within the concentrations of perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) by occupational subgroup, with the very best concentrations seen amongst firefighters. The best detected PFHxS focus in a firefighter was 9.3 µg/L, which was about 2.5 occasions the NHANES ninety fifth percentile (3.8 µg/L).
Total, 2 to 40 % of Maui County workers, together with firefighters, have been over the NHANES ninety fifth percentile for the opposite PFAS chemical substances. The median sum serum concentrations of seven PFAS was 7.0 µg/L amongst firefighters; all workers bar one firefighter had concentrations under the NASEM scientific threshold of 20 µg/L. For different occupational subgroups, the median sum serum concentrations of seven PFAS ranged from 5.7 µg/L to six.9 µg/L.
“To protect first responders during disasters, it is essential to continue providing strategies for characterizing and reducing exposures,” the authors write.
Extra data:
Catherine C. Beaucham et al, Notes from the Discipline: Serum Concentrations of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Amongst First Responders to the Maui Wildfires — Hawaii, September 2023, MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2025). DOI: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7403a1
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