Solicitor General supports graduate student designing advanced materials for safer firefighting gear
The Honourable Michael Kerzner, Ontario's Solicitor General, visited the Department of Chemical Engineering to show support for a graduate student's project. The student aims to develop innovative materials to create firefighting gear designed to reduce the risk of occupational cancer.
Firefighters have a higher risk of dying from cancer, which is three times more than the general population. One of the reasons for this is their gear, which contains polyfluorinated substances (PFAS). PFAS are a group of chemicals used in various applications, including firefighting uniforms and fire extinguishing materials used by firefighters. These substances have unique properties that make them difficult to replace.
PFAS does not degrade in the environment and transforms into microplastic pollution over time. In this state, PFAS can diffuse through the skin from fire suits and accumulate in organs which is of concern as they are known to elevate the risk of cancer.
Drew Davidson is a graduate student in Chemical Engineering who is determined to create a new material that can replace PFAS. His inspiration for this research comes from his mother who has been a firefighter in the Cambridge Fire Department for 32 years. She asked Davidson if, as an engineer, he could help resolve this important health issue.
Davidson partnered with MBET graduate Kade Truman, who has a strong background in entrepreneurship and the commercialization of deep tech.
“To us, firefighters are heroes that run into burning buildings to save lives and it turns out the suits that they wear to protect them are killing them,” says Truman.” Cancer is the number one cause of death of firefighters due to this issue and we’re trying to do something about that by applying technology.”
Davidson received a new scholarship called the Deep Tech Scholarship recently launched by Dean Mary Wells. Professor Valerie Ward identified a need for a scholarship for PhD students who want to create start-ups. Dean Wells embraced the idea by funding the very first scholarship. This scholarship is the only of its kind in Canada.
Davidson will be supervised by Professor Milad Kamkar. Kamkar has expertise in polymer engineering and the synthesis of advanced, sustainable, biobased nanomaterials. Kamkar’s area of research is a perfect fit for Davidson’s proposed project.Their research will be used to design novel materials to better protect the lives of firefighters.
From left to right is: Dr. Marc Aucoin, chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Valerie Ward, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, Drew Davidson, Dr. Milad Kamkar and Kade Truman