Thanks for raising that. We sometimes forget to include the cost of disease when we're making economic assumptions about the cost of prevention.
I know that the IAFF has been raising the dangers of chemical flame retardants at the federal level in Canada for many years. While certain chemical flame retardants are known to pose numerous health risks to Canadians, we know that firefighters are obviously at an increased risk of harm because they encounter them in a combusted state in the course of their duties.
In August 2021, the federal government announced an action plan to “protect firefighters from harmful chemicals released during household fires”. Can you outline the elements of this action plan and how they will impact firefighters' safety across Canada? If you know, can you maybe give us an update on where we are with that plan?