SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Illinois House passed a bill Thursday night to ban companies from manufacturing, selling, and distributing firefighting protective gear that contain forever chemicals.
Rep. Mike Kelly, a Chicago firefighter, filed the proposal after seeing research that shows many people on the front lines are dying due to their standard gear.
This bill would address concerns regarding PPE by eliminating the sale of turnout gear containing PFAS and improve long-term health risks that firefighters face.
This plan would require companies selling protective equipment containing PFAS to provide written notice of why the chemicals are added to the gear by the end of this year. The state could then ban people from selling any PPE containing forever chemicals to fire departments starting January 1, 2027.
Manufacturers that sell auxiliary firefighting protective equipment would be banned from knowingly selling or distributing any auxiliary gear containing intentionally added PFAS chemicals by January 1, 2030.
"I'd like to thank Chuck Sullivan and Steve Shetsky from AFFI for working with the manufacturers of the equipment and working to get to 2030 and give them some time to work on some other equipment that we know there's no replacement for right now," Kelly said.
House Bill 2409 passed unanimously out of the House and now moves to the Senate for further consideration.
"We encounter carcinogens and toxic chemicals on a daily basis," said AFFI President Chuck Sullivan. "But up until about eight or ten years ago, little did we know that the bunker gear we're wearing contains extremely high levels of forever chemicals. We literally put this gear on and take it off multiple times during our shifts."
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