Diane Cotter went on a mission to discover why so many firefighters die of cancer. What she found not only shocked her but has led to a movement to change firefighter gear to save them.
According to People Magazine, Cotter is featured in a new documentary titled, “Burned: Protecting the Protectors” which helps explore why two in every three firefighters dies of cancer.
She noted that in 2014 her husband Paul was diagnosed with prostate cancer and she automatically believed it was due to his career as a firefighter with Massachusetts’ Worcester Fire Department.
Cotter feared that smoke inhalation had caused the cancer and that it was due to failures in his gear.
She said, “I saw all these quarter- and dime-size holes in the crotch area. I told myself, ‘Holy cow, this is how all these chemicals got into his body.’”
But as she researched, the facts led her elsewhere. She learned that many of the 1.2 million firefighters in America wear gear that contains heavy amounts of toxic per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
“Initially I was searching to find information to prove that their gear didn’t contain these chemicals,” she explained.
“But as I peeled back the layers, I realized that this gear that was meant to protect firefighters was actually killing them,” she went on.
PFAS are found in many everyday products like dental floss and food packaging in the United States.
The connection between the toxic chemicals and cancer led Cotter to contact other firefighters as well as scientists. Then she learned that firefighters in Europe are no longer wearing gear with PFAS.
She admitted, “I’d never heard of them before.” She said it was difficult to understand her findings at first when discussing the situation with University of Notre Dame nuclear physicist and professor Dr. Graham Peaslee.
“He told me that the gear contained staggering amounts of PFAS, some of the largest levels he’d ever seen,” she continued.
By 2020, Cotter’s concerns aided the development of a peer reviewed study which is helping her to urge political leaders to ban these harmful substances from protective gear.
The International Association of Fire Fighters has joined her in this fight, but Cotter noted, “There’s no joy in this.”
“We’ve got to protect the next generation. The cost to Paul and myself was great. But the cost of doing nothing would be even greater,” she said.
Paul Cotter has been in remission since 2020 and son Pauly, 35, is a firefighter in Worcester. Cotter continues her advocacy to help change gear and save lives.