# @wmnf885 on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DULyavKDfoS
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70139984-wmnf885-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/337b0edc75.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-01-31T17:55:21.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** WMNF Community Radio (@wmnf885) — https://gondola.cc/wmnf885

## Caption

FL lawmakers propose ban on toxic firefighting foam linked to water and soil contamination

TALLAHASSEE, FL – State lawmakers are weighing a ban on a highly effective but toxic foam widely used to suppress flammable-liquid fires that is leaking into water supplies and sickening people, with firefighters at the forefront of the worldwide battle with “forever chemicals.”

Due to public health and environmental concerns, the foam was banned in the United Kingdom last year and in Australia in 2018. Several U.S. states, including New York and Michigan, ban most uses of it. The U.S. Department of Defense is phasing it out this year.

The effort this year by lawmakers to ban the substance comes years after state and federal findings that numerous military installations, airports and firefighter training centers in Florida are riddled with forever chemicals, called PFAS (which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), in water and soil. That is because the toxic firefighting foam, which is very good at its job, has for decades been routinely sprayed at those places in tests, in training, and when big machines such as jets catch fire.

State Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Republican representing all of Martin County and parts of neighboring St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties, wants Florida to ban the use of Aqueous Film-Forming Foam – or AFFF, which is loaded with PFAS – starting July 1 and to ban its sale, purchase or distribution in Florida by July 1 of next year.

Her bill, SB 1230, sets a July 1, 2028, deadline to ban the possession and use of the toxic foam. There are major exemptions for aviation facilities, military installations and emergency firefighting situations in which no alternative to AFFF is suitable.

“This is a really significant step forward to protect our firefighters,” Harrell said at the bill’s first legislative hearing in Tallahassee on Jan. 20, where it passed unanimously and advanced for further hearings. “Our firefighters are the ones directly exposed to it. … This is a forever chemical, and it does cause serious risk for cancer.”

What do you think about this proposal? Share your thoughts below 👇

#FloridaPolitics #EnvironmentalHealth #WMNF

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## Tags

environmentalhealth, floridapolitics, wmnf

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