U.S. Fire Station Dust Study

Shen, B., Whitehead, T. P., Gill, R., Dhaliwal, J., Brown, F. R., Petreas, M., Patton, S., & Hammond, S. K. (2018). Organophosphate flame retardants in dust collected from United States fire stations. Environment international, 112, 41–48.

We collected and analyzed dust samples from the living quarters of 26 U.S. fire fighter stations. We found that US fire stations have a higher contamination of flame retardants than other occupational settings and private residences, underscoring the need to identify and control sources of this contamination. Download

Canada Fire Station Dust Study

Gill R, Hurley S, Brown R, Tarrant D, Dhaliv J, Sasrala R, Park, June-Soo Patton S, Petreas M. Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether and Organophosphate Flame Retardants in Canadian Fire Station Dust. Chemosphere 2020 253 .

We collected dust from 24 fire stations in four provinces. Canadian levels tended to be lower than those found in the U.S. Our data reflects the downward trends of PBDEs following their phase out and a shift toward OPFRs as replacements. Download

North America Homes and Fire Stations Dust Study

Samantha M. Hall, Sharyle Patton, Myrto Petreas, Sharon Zhang, Allison L. Phillips, Kate Hoffman, Heather M. Stapleton. Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Dust Collected from Residential Homes and Fire Stations in North America. Environmental Science & Technology 2020, 54 (22) , 14558-14567. Download

Dust samples from 184 homes in North Carolina and 49 fire stations across the United States and Canada were collected and analyzed for a suite of PFAS. Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexane sulfonate, perfluorononanoic acid, and 6:2 diPAP were significantly higher in dust from fire stations than from homes.