Wildland firefighters are in the and the ash and soot that gets on their clothing. Over long assignments fighting fires that can last for days to weeks, those chemicals can be absorbed by their skin.

Some of those chemicals . A 2025 study found that firefighters in general had a than non-firefighters and a 40% higher risk of dying from kidney cancer. Other research specifically on wildland firefighters also found .

To help wildland firefighters reduce some of these long-term health risks, researchers – including me and my colleagues at the in the at – are working on , starting with the tiniest of fibers in the fabric.

The challenge is making protective textiles that prevent chemicals from reaching the skin and are also breathable to reduce the risk of the firefighter .

Complex fire risks reaching the skin

As hotter temperatures dry out the landscape and more people move into wildland areas, the .

A yellow firefighting jacket with soot on it.
A soot-stained firefighting jacket, covered with contaminants. Sumit Mandal

Fighting these fires is , and soot- and sweat-stained jackets and pants have long been symbols of the hard work.

However, the smoke, ash and soot contain compounds that . These compounds can to and . The human body , so the compounds can , raising a person’s health risks.

Carcinogens can pass through many fabrics

To study the chemicals firefighters are exposed to and find ways to improve their protective clothing, my team – fires intentionally set to clear flammable undergrowth to prevent future wildfires – and collected firefighters’ dirty protective clothing to examine the contaminants.

We found that ultrafine carcinogenic smoke particles the firefighters were wearing, meaning it could reach their skin.

Firefighters face blowing smoke that can get everywhere. Textile and Apparel Science Laboratory/Oklahoma State University

Highly breathable fabrics, which can reduce firefighters’ heat stress, are more likely than tighter weaves to .

However, researchers have found that rough fabrics, because of their irregular surfaces and higher friction, can , preventing them from moving through the material.

Features such as surface roughness and protruding fibers create more sites where particles can stick to the outer surface rather than passing through. There are drawbacks: Contaminants can also accumulate on the rougher surface, meaning they may require better cleaning procedures to avoid continuing exposures.

There can also be a trade-off in comfort if increasing roughness and density reduces airflow, meaning heat can’t escape as easily.

Better protection starts at the nano level

Firefighter clothing is commonly made from heat-resistant fibers such as Kevlar, Nomex, PBI and flame-retardant cotton. Often, this combination of heat resistance and protection against liquid hazards, such as fuels used in drip torches, has been achieved through the use of – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals” because they linger in the environment. However, PFAS are a .

While some manufacturers are working to both improve their designs and from the fabric, most still focus primarily on thermal protection rather than particle filtration when it comes to design.

My team is into the fabric through the material’s structure and through the use of advanced layers within the fabric, including smart fabrics and nanofabrics.

Microscope images show differences in the fabric of a clean firefighting jacket, on the left, and one exposed to burning ash trees, on the right, both from the author’s testing of wildland firefighters’ clothing. Contaminants appear as round spots attached to the fibers in the close-up of the fabric on the right. ,

and are textiles engineered at very small scales to interact with particles and chemicals. Nanofabrics, for example, have extremely thin fibers and very small pores that can capture fine and ultrafine particles more effectively than typical fabrics do.

They can by physically blocking particles as well as capturing chemicals on high-surface-area materials, such as activated carbon or graphene. At the same time, they remain breathable because their porous structures allow air and moisture vapor to pass through while stopping harmful particles.

Multilayer fabrics fine-tuned to do it all

We have been with , that can combine filtration, the ability to capture particles and comfort.

Using techniques such as , which uses an electric charge to create extremely thin fibers and control their diameter and the fabric structure, we can essentially tune the fabric for ideal levels of protection and breathability.

The goal is to create fabrics that not only block particles but also capture and neutralize them, while still maintaining airflow and usability in real wildfire conditions.

Wildland firefighters risk their lives to keep communities safe. They deserve gear that can keep them safe, as well.

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