OPINION:
As we enter the holiday season, thoughts of fire safety are generally not dancing in the heads of most revelers. Hazards apparent and hidden abound. Christmas trees are beautiful when lit, but if they are not properly watered, they can become dry-tinder and can easily ignite. We laugh at the scene in “A Christmas Story” of the father jamming one more plug into the overloaded socket but in reality, that is not a laughing matter.
There are a lot more dangers than tree kindling, unfortunately. To stay warm disadvantaged families without heat resort to using unsafe space heaters or an open oven. As a retired firefighter and advocate for fire safety, I can tell you firsthand of the helplessness of responding to a house fire and not having an adequate water supply or pressure because underground pipes are frozen or cracked. Watching a home burn under those circumstances is heartbreaking.
As municipal budgets tighten, lawmakers and managers have to make hard decisions. Regrettably, lower-cost options frequently prevail over public safety. Currently, an aggressive effort is underway to use unreliable and unhealthy plastic for underground piping instead of iron or steel.
Plastic pipes are the cheaper upfront option. But cheap doesn’t translate into quality or durability, as anyone who has shopped for electronics can attest, plastic cracks, especially when it’s under pressure. Water is forced through a fire hydrant at incredible pressure, and we need the pipes that feed these hydrants to be up to the task. There is no margin for error.
While firefighters often attend municipal meetings to advocate for the purchase of safety equipment and additional personnel, it’s rare to see us in discussions about what kinds of pipes are best suited for infrastructure projects. We respect project managers, engineers and other industry professions. But we have a valuable contribution to make regarding pipes. To put it simply, plastic pipes can make our jobs harder. And the last thing a firefighter needs is a more challenging environment as we’re saving lives and trying to save burning buildings.
When a firetruck rolls up to an incident, no one questions our judgment on how we attack a fire or whether we recommend bringing in additional resources. Similarly, we should respect the professional judgment of engineers and others who have the knowledge and experience to know the best pipe material suited for each community. Unfortunately, there are some who want to usurp this knowledge and professional experience to force municipalities to use plastic pipes.
As bad as it is to deal with cracked pipes when fighting a fire, the health effects from burning plastic are lethal to firefighters and citizens alike. Certainly, firefighters wear safety equipment and breathing apparatus. While not absolute, they have a measure of protection. Unfortunately, citizens and other responders do not. If plastic pipes are burning, people are breathing in hazardous dioxins.
Plastic pipes are also known as PVC. PVC is actually a chemical compound known as polyvinyl chloride. At least one of the dioxins released when it burns has been classified as a carcinogen. PVC has durability issues and poses health risks that iron and steel piping do not. It may be cheaper, but over the long term, is it really worth the cost? Municipal leaders should heed the warning of engineers and other professionals involved in building and construction projects when they either recommend a sturdier and less hazardous option than plastic PVC.
Stay safe and recognize fire and life-threatening hazards this holiday season. Discontinuing the use of plastic PVC pipes is an environmentally friendly way to keep everyone safer and healthier in 2018 and beyond. I also encourage municipal leaders to listen to water utility professionals and make sure they continue to have the flexibility and authority they need to recommend the right pipes for infrastructure projects.
• Kevin O’Connor is a retired Baltimore County firefighter who also led the Governmental Affairs and Public Policy Division of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
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