Redmond EMS Abstracts.indd - IAFF

Cris A. Williams, PhD
Senior Science Advisor
BRIEFING:
Fire Retardants and Fire Fighter Exposures
ENVIRON
10150 Highland Manor Drive, Suite 440
Tampa, Florida 33610
850-668-3551
cwilliams@environcorp.com; www.environcorp.com
Background:
Doctor Cris A. Williams has 19 years of experience in litigation support, applied toxicology,
quantitative risk assessment and public health. Cris has authored technical documents in these
subject areas for private and public clients and has been published in the peer review literature.
Cris develops practical risk assessment approaches to complex litigation and serves as an expert in
matters of risk analysis, consumer product, occupational and environmental exposure assessment,
toxicology and public health. He has conducted numerous risk-based site investigations and has
served as the lead in regulatory negotiations. Cris has extensive experience evaluating exposure
to and the health effects from dioxins, metals including chromium and arsenic, volatile organic
compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls. He has been
retained as a testifying expert in matters involving exposures to asbestos, metals such as arsenic,
and air pollutants such as particulate matter, ozone, benzene, as well as sulfur and nitrogen oxides.
Abstract:
The IAFF has been addressing the use of fire retardant materials that have become a concern
because of their persistence in the environment and potential health effects to those exposures,
especially fire fighters during fire incidents. There are 209 different brominated diphenal ethers
(BDE) in this class of chemicals. Penta-, octa- and deca-BDE formulations were commonly used
in the United States. In 2004 the penta- and octa-BDE formulations were removed from US
markets. The deca-BDE formulation remains in use. Deca-BDE has been found in measurable
quantities in both blood and breast milk in biomonitoring studies conducted by the US Centers
for Disease Control and other research centers across the United States. The IAFF has worked to
ban Deca-BDE in a number of states and has worked with industry and the federal government
to completely phase these materials out of production.
The IAFF is also interested in perfluorinated chemicals (PFC) used in some fire fighting foam and
the possible exposures to PFCs by fire fighters during training or during fire fighting. PFCs have
been associated with cancer and other diseases.
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