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Safety First. 3M foam banned – return to sender

March 26, 2007

Use or storage of the 3M products known as 3% and 6% Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) concentrate is now banned by the Union. Even though the Department has stopped purchasing and using this product for a number of years, the Union believes that in some instances it is still being used for ‘training purposes’.
Besides banning its use, Members are also instructed to search the Station for these chemicals, collect and tag them as a hazard and to notify the Department’s Health Services Unit so that they can be removed from your workplace.
Members at Retained Stations in particular should have a good look for this foam as the Union believes that this foam constitutes both an unacceptable and avoidable risk to members and their families.  It has come to light that the Australian Military believes this product can cause serious health problems including:
• Central nervous system depression,
• nausea,
• vomiting and sometimes diarrhoea in humans.
Other symptoms include:
• abdominal and lumbar pain,
• changes  in  the  urine  or absence  of  urine, and
• pathological lesions in the brain, lung,  liver  and  heart.
Observations in animals suggest a remote possibility or pulmonary oedema  (swelling and/or fluid accumulation in the lungs) and bone marrow depression. Experimental animal studies have also shown injury  to the  liver, kidney, spleen, and testes.
On that basis, Members should treat this material as hazardous by (as a minimum) not allowing it to come into contact with the skin or breath in its fumes.
Simon Flynn
State Secretary

Use or storage of the 3M products known as 3% and 6% Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) concentrate is now banned by the Union. Even though the Department has stopped purchasing and using this product for a number of years, the Union believes that in some instances it is still being used for ‘training purposes’.

Besides banning its use, Members are also instructed to search the Station for these chemicals, collect and tag them as a hazard and to notify the Department’s Health Services Unit so that they can be removed from your workplace.

Members at Retained Stations in particular should have a good look for this foam as the Union believes that this foam constitutes both an unacceptable and avoidable risk to members and their families.  It has come to light that the Australian Military believes this product can cause serious health problems including:

• Central nervous system depression,

• nausea,

• vomiting and sometimes diarrhoea in humans.


Other symptoms include:

• abdominal and lumbar pain,

• changes  in  the  urine  or absence  of  urine, and

• pathological lesions in the brain, lung,  liver  and  heart.

Observations in animals suggest a remote possibility or pulmonary oedema  (swelling and/or fluid accumulation in the lungs) and bone marrow depression. Experimental animal studies have also shown injury  to the  liver, kidney, spleen, and testes.

On that basis, Members should treat this material as hazardous by (as a minimum) not allowing it to come into contact with the skin or breath in its fumes.


Simon Flynn

State Secretary

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