A meeting scheduled at Garysburg Town Hall Wednesday will focus on firefighter turnout gear and exposure to toxic chemicals contained in the suits.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. and is being sponsored by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The town hall is located at 504 Old Highway Road in Garysburg.

Speakers include Kevin Ferrara, a retired United States Air Force firefighter and owner of Agile Fire Service. He is also host of the AFS021's Weekend Wrap-Up podcast.

Jason Burns, a career firefighter in Fall River, Massachusetts, and district vice president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, will also speak. Burns is also the executive director of the Last Call Foundation, a non-profit that advances the safety needs of firefighters.

A University of Notre Dame study showed that fabric used for firefighter turnout gear tested positive for the presence of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances.

The study, which was published in the Environmental Science and Technology Letters, was led by Graham Peaslee, professor of physics. 

Peaslee embarked on a more extensive study, after initial tests on gear samples showed significantly high levels of fluorine.

​Peaslee’s team tested more than 30 samples of used and unused personal protective equipment from six specialty textile manufacturers in the United States and found them to be treated extensively with PFAS or constructed with fluoropolymers, a type of PFAS used to make textiles oil and water resistant.

The full study can be found at this link and the study’s supporting information can be found at this link