Lawmakers Consider a Ban on ‘Forever Chemicals’ to Fight Fires

Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch

A bill that received preliminary approval in the Iowa Senate on Wednesday would force municipal and county airports to stop buying firefighting foams with toxic chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment.

Senate File 2229 targets perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals — which have been detected in the drinking water of more than a dozen Iowa cities and are linked to cancers and other health ailments.

The airports would have to end the use of foams containing PFAS by 2026.

Federal regulators are poised to impose strict drinking water limits this year on a handful of the chemicals, and airports that have used the foams are a well-established source of groundwater contamination.

Such contamination is suspected in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Sioux City, and several Iowa firefighters have cancers that might have been caused by their exposure to the foams.

“We have eight that are currently undergoing treatment for cancer,” said Lon Anderson, of the Iowa Professional Fire Fighters association, during a Senate subcommittee meeting. “And there’s a lot of evidence that suggests PFAS is responsible for it.”

But there are financial hurdles to switching away from the products to foams that don’t contain the chemicals, said Todd Gibbs, director of operations for the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids. The airport is a potential source of PFAS contamination in the area and is in the process of switching to firefighting foam that doesn’t contain the chemicals.

Gibbs said the cost to clean the chemicals from two fire trucks as part of that transition is about $250,000. To afford that expense “will be quite challenging for some of our smaller commercial service airports,” he said. Gibbs and others who are affiliated with Iowa airports said the bill’s January 2026 deadline to switch to PFAS-free foam might be infeasible for the smaller airports.

Further, the alternative foams that have been approved for use by the Federal Aviation Administration have not been shown to be as effective as the PFAS foams, others said.

“This chemistry is best at what it does,” said Collin Brecher, of the American Chemistry Council, which lobbies on behalf of chemical companies. “It’s designed to be the best at putting out those hot liquid fires in case of actual emergencies.”

Brecher said the current PFAS foams contain variations of the chemicals that are believed to be less harmful to humans. There are thousands of PFAS. The bill would prominently affect airports, but the prohibition of PFAS foam purchases would apply to all departments,

boards and commissions of cities and counties. It was advanced Wednesday by a three-person subcommittee with a recommendation that it be amended.

“There’s basically two subjects that we’re facing: One is having the best equipment, including foam, to put out the fires and knowing that we’re going to save those lives,” said Cherielynn Westrich, R-Ottumwa, who introduced the bill and led the subcommittee. “But also looking at saving (firefighters’) lives — when we talk about the eight firefighters that are currently facing cancer.”

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