Departments getting rid of firefighting foam

Something's off here. New Jersey's fire department, hundreds of them, should not be getting rid of foam proven to put out flames. It was like sitting on a bomb. How am I going to get rid of this?

Chief Robert Gancarz leads the Jacobstown volunteer fire station. They've used a firefighting foam called AFFF since the mid 1980s. Gancarz eagerly got rid of all of it, 580 gallons. And who would have thought that it would be the foam and the gear that could be a threat? The very tools I am using can cause health problems. They can kill you.

AFFF is also laced with PFAS, toxic so-called forever chemicals. Studies link AFFF exposure to higher cancer rates among firefighters. New Jersey's collected more than 150,000 gallons from fire stations, all of it trucked to the Ohio company, Revive Environmental, for PFAS destruction. We process it directly through our supercritical water reactors. And what comes out of those reactors is clean water.

But for decades, firefighters' protective equipment also contained PFAS. It was in the gear and everything I had that-- every time you put it on and went to a call. Thousands of times over the 50 years. Aw, big boy. Boots Gancarz, Robert Gancarz's 76-year-old father, fought fires all his adult life. In 2024, doctors told him he had colon cancer. Cancer can be a scary word. But I'm going to beat this. They ain't shoveling dirt in my face yet. This is soy foam.

Robert Gancarz showed us his department's new foam, free of PFAS. It's made with soybeans. We may have to use a little more of this product, but it'll still put the fire out.

Gancarz has been blood tested. This still has the PFAS in--

His results showed PFAS levels higher than the average Americans. How worried are you about cancer for yourself? It's definitely a scary thing to think about.

That's why New Jersey is spending millions to destroy this threat. It's one thing to put out a fire. It's another to put out a cancer. Mark Strassmann, CBS News, Burlington County, New Jersey. And we are wishing him a speedy recovery, Mark. Thank you for that.