The Little Rock Air Force jet bomber facility near Jacksonville started construction on December 8, 1953, on property donated by the Pulaski County Citizens Council. Little Rock Air Force Base is located northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas, and is home to the 19th Airlift Wing (Air Mobility Command) which provides mission-ready Airmen to the Department of Defense and maintains the world's biggest C-130 fleet. When it comes to military bases like Little Rock Air Force Base, the principal source of PFAS pollution is AFFF (aqueous firefighting film-forming foam), which was developed by the Department of Defense and 3M in the 1960s and first mandated by the Navy and Marine Corps in 1967.
Little Rock Air Force Base (LRAFB) is situated inside the municipal boundaries of Jacksonville on 6,412 acres of land - Pulaski County. Since the base's establishment in 1955, it has made a substantial contribution to the area's economy and prosperity. Navigators, C-130 pilots, flight engineers, and loadmasters from all branches of the U.S. military are trained at Little Rock AFB, which serves as the major C-130 Hercules training site for the Defense Department. The facility has a total population of 13,893 inhabitants, which comprises 6,995 military and 1,316 civilian personnel and 5,582 family members who live and work on the base. These people's health may have been impacted as a result of their continued exposure to PFAS.
According to Defense Department data collected by the Environmental Working Group, a non-partisan organization based in Washington, DC, an additional 59 military locations in the United States have soil, groundwater, and surface water contamination from the hazardous "forever chemicals" known as PFAS. This takes the total number of bases impacted to 385.
According to Department of Defense (DOD) figures, PFAS levels at the 59 locations ranged from 3.4 parts per trillion to 870,000 parts per trillion, in the soil and water of the bases. The federal government does not regulate the presence of PFAS in soil or water; however, some states have taken efforts to limit the quantity of the most frequent kind of PFAS in drinking water to as low as six parts per trillion in order to safeguard human health.
DOD statistics suggest potential contamination in groundwater at 294 more facilities, in addition to the 385 sites where PFAS contamination has already been proven. Five of the sites identified in the EWG analysis are among the department's locations with the highest PFAS detections in either soil or groundwater, according to department figures. The Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas has the highest degree of groundwater pollution, according to the investigation.
A family of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been used in a wide range of products used by consumers and industry since the 1950s. As early as the 1960s, researchers at the US Naval Research Laboratory and 3M Company began investigating the use of PFAS in firefighting foams to suppress high-hazard, difficult-to-fight Class B fires produced by petroleum products or flammable liquids or gases. However, these fluorine compounds used turned out to be toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative.
If you spent time at Little Rock Air Force Base and there is anything in your health status that causes you concern, we strongly advise you to seek medical attention immediately. Along with a physical examination and tests performed, your physician may request extra information about your employment history to assess possible chemical exposure.
Service members who have been exposed to PFAS chemicals are eligible to submit a toxic exposure claim for a variety of severe and permanently disabling illnesses, such as:
If you came to struggle with one of the aforementioned diseases as a consequence of exposure to PFAS while you were staying at Little Rock Air Force Base, you may be eligible for compensation.
Our professional team has considerable experience providing legal assistance to clients who have developed a disease or have sustained injuries as a consequence of a company's negligence. This includes veterans who developed life-threatening health problems as a result of PFAS exposure at Little Rock Air Force Base. Our process is quick and easy. During a 10-minute phone call, we can assess your situation and if you meet the eligibility criteria a skilled PFAS attorney will file a toxic exposure claim on your behalf.
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*No fees unless compensation is obtained