076. The “Goldilocks” Decon That Firefighters Will Actually Use [Part 1]

If you think “no smoke smell” means you’re clean, you’re wrong. 

Navy vet and FLAME founder Tara Cornett shows how her multi-charcoal “Goldilocks” blend pulls cancer-causing junk off your skin. Crews tested it after working fires, and post-shower swabs came back non-detectable. 

We lay out fast, simple decon you’ll actually do between calls.

What You’ll Learn:

• A 3–5 minute decon routine you can run as soon as you’re back.
• Why smell does not mean safety, and how pore size helps grab more bad stuff.
• How to pick decon that works without wrecking your skin.
• Station cross-contamination traps (wheels, recliners, fridge handles) and how to break them.
• Laundry basics for hoods and base layers so you don’t put junk back on your body.

 If you’re a firefighter who wants fast, no-BS decon that actually lowers exposure and keeps you in the fight, this one’s for you.

Transcript

TJ: Cancer hits the fire service really hard, but one of the easiest fixes that we control is how we clean ourselves. Today's guest is Tara Cornet, a Navy veteran sister of a San Diego firefighter, and the founder of Flame Natural Deon. She saw a gap, plenty of products for rigs, for gear, and for firehouses, but almost nothing for the firefighters skin.

She created a proprietary decon blend. Crews, went out and tested it after real burns, ranging from the Marshall Fire in Colorado to FDIC. Live training and post-show swabs came back with non-detectable amount of carcinogens. So today we get practical. We talk about on-scene gross decon that you'll actually do.

We talk about why some wipes tear up your skin, and we talk about laundry that doesn't redeposit junk onto your skin. Most importantly, how to protect your family From that take home exposure. Plus you'll get terrorist spicy takes on clean calves and working out in gear. Let's get into it.

Narrator: Welcome to the Keep the Promise Podcast, where we help build resilient and well-rounded firefighters.

TJ: Cancer is. One of those unavoidable things in the fire service however we have a chance of mitigating, and we can get into the arguments of clean cabs and the different gears with PFAS and so on and so forth. But undeniably, one of the best things that we can do without massive infrastructure changes is how we clean ourselves. And that is where Flame Decon comes in and helping us with the procedures and with the materials, if you will, for better personal decon. So, Tara, welcome to the Keep the Promise Podcast. I'm so pumped that we finally made this happen after going back and forth. And I'm super excited to pick your brain about the brand, about your goals, about your reasons for starting it and everything along the way.

Tara: Thank you. I'm excited to be here and thank you for having me.

TJ: So as we always do, let's just get started. Tell me about you and tell me about Flame.

Tara: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I am a Navy veteran and my brother is on the job in San Diego. Um, so I launched flame, started research and development about six years ago and sold our first product a little over five years ago. And our goal is to reduce cancer rates in the fire service, um, where it counts with the firefighter, who actually is the one who gets cancer.

TJ: Was there a moment that you just said, huh, nobody's doing this? Like what? What part of the landscape made you take that step into entrepreneurship, into creating that product?

Tara: for sure. So, um, rewind several years I was working. Um. My background is in public relations and the military. So I was doing public relations for, um, the army for army recruiting. Um, and the agency that I was working for lost a huge contract with Army recruiting, and hundreds of people were laid off from their jobs, as was I.

Um, and in that I thought like I wanted to continue my public relations career. So I originally launched a PR firm, um, and my mom, as she was retiring, she really wanted, like, she wanted something in retirement and so she launched a gear and gift store for firefighters and their families because she asked my brother a million times for the fire mom sticker for the back of her car, and like.

It just took forever to get it. So she was like, what if I can provide this right? Um, so in that, um, in that transition, like I realized that I didn't want a PR agency. I was sick of working for people to build their pockets. I needed to work for the greater good and my mom wanted some help in her business.

'cause running a business is hard, especially as you're looking at retirement. Um, so she and I then went at that business together and ran fire mom.com together for a while, and then she decided that she wanted to fully retire. So when she decided she wanted to fully retire, I changed our mission from Garrin Gifts to Firefighter Health and Wellness.

Um, and, and then, so in looking at that, I really needed to change the products that we were providing. I needed to look at, you know, what, what do we need to provide to really fit this mission? Started looking at, um, books for mental health, um, all of the different things out there to reduce the risk of cancer.

And when I started looking at that, I realized there were things out there to clean the apparatus, clean the gear, clean the station, but nothing specifically developed to clean the firefighter, the one who actually gets cancer. Um, so that's what really sparked the interest. Um, and then I dove into the science behind it, realized that I could develop this in a way that wasn't out there at all in any sense that would truly work for firefighters.

And once I realized that it was just this calling, I had to do it because one, I want my brother to be around for his kids. Two, like, if it can help my brother, it can help the hundreds of thousands of other firefighters who were out there.

TJ: Now talk to me about the research and development because it's one thing to say, found a calling. I dove into it. I want to learn more, but this is not a, you know, as we call it, first try Fridays, you don't just get it on the first shot, right. Talk to me about those early prototypes. Like run me through the process of how many, you know, Edison was claimed to have had, how many failures, like a thousand failures, and the thousand at first is when he got the light bulb.

What was that light bulb moment for you? How do you remember the number of failures and what were those initial ones until something finally clicked?

Tara: So, um, like, let me kind of give you, um, one, the first prototype was it, but I didn't stop testing. But let me, let me kind of step back and talk about the science here. Um,

TJ: There goes my entire question. You're like, no, I gotta ride on the first shot. Boom, mic drop.

Tara: Done, podcast Done.

TJ: Done.

Tara: So the science behind it is so important though. And I'm gonna get a little nerdy, I'm not gonna take up too much time with it 'cause I don't wanna bore people. But the reason that flame is so different is because of our proprietary blend of activated charcoal, right? So every other product out there in the market is using one type of activated charcoal.

And the way the activated charcoal works is that there are pores in different types of activated charcoal when they, when they steam it at high heat and bring it, like break it down into activated charcoal when you have these different natural resources activated charcoals made from coal, Pete. Peanut shells, coconut shells, I mean, you name it.

So many different things. So when you break those down, they're gonna have different properties. The one that we're really looking at is the pore structure, the pore size there. Because when you, when you remove an activated charcoal, or I'm sorry, when you remove a carcinogen with activated charcoal, you have to match the pore size of the activated charcoal with the size of the carcinogen you're trying to remove.

Or it won't remove it if that pore structure is too large, the carcinogen is gonna go right through it. If the pore structure is too small, it's not gonna go in and get trapped, right? So you have to have. Activated charcoal that matches the size of the carcinogen you're trying to remove. But when you're looking at firefighter decon, you're looking at so many different sizes of carcinogens.

So taking a, take a carcinogen, like soot, it has everything from 0.01 to a thousand nanometers in size in soot, right? Take an activated charcoal, like coconut activated charcoal, has super, super small pores in it. It'll remove everything under two nanometers. So if you're only removing under two, you are leaving the rest of that, that sit on the skin.

Our activated charcoal blend has four different types in there that remove all sizes of carcinogens, so it's gonna remove all that. So all kinds of other carcinogens, and that's what's so different and unique about our product. It's one of the reasons we protect the blend so well, you know, people proprietary well, what are they hiding?

Well, we're, we're, we're protecting ourselves and we're protecting you. But that's, that's really the science behind the activated charcoal and why it's so different now. With that, I did research, figured all that out, came up with our blend and our blend is based on the types of carcinogens that firefighters come into contact with most.

So then I took that two scientists, these biochemists that develop these pro, these, these formulations for shampoo, body wash soap, that kind of thing, had them one, look at the science that I had found and look at our proprietary blend and verify that everything I was doing was correct. Because I'm just a girl with a PR background.

Uh, sure. I have my aesthetician, like, it's like I 

TJ: just a girl. 

Tara: I'm not a biochemist. So they verify the research here. They helped me build the formulations around it. So that's where we get the prototypes, right? So we went into this and I told them, one, this is for firefighters, so I want it to be affordable, but also I want it to be naturally derived so it's safe for them.

I don't wanna be putting carcinogens on the skin to remove carcinogens. Huge deal. So we, we go into this, they send, they come up with a formulation. I told 'em like, this seemed to obviously get them clean. So one of their main concerns at first was like, let's make sure that none of the, the. The ingredients clog the pores of the activated charcoal, blocking it from working super important.

So none of 'em do, and everything works with it to continue to get you clean, right? So we went into this and the first, the first few formulations they sent me, I went through ingredient by ingredient and let them know what was acceptable or not. So really our first stabs at it were just me rejecting ingredients saying that these, these aren't clean enough ingredients.

So once we got to a formulation that the ingredients looked great, um, they then formulated that and sent it to me and tried it myself first and said, this works amazing. Had a couple of people try it. This works amazing. And this was our shampoo body wash. Um, but we're not gonna get on the first try. Like there's.

It's gotta get better than this. Like, so, um, one of the things that I asked them was, um, like, this is when you, like, it gets you squeaky clean. It's not gonna leave you dry and roughed up. It's gonna leave you feeling smooth and nice, but remove everything. But it leaves you squeaky clean. And I was like, should it be more moisturizing?

Right? Like, so we played with a few things and really just came back to that forced formulation. 'cause they hit it outta the park when they finally did the first formulation. And we had the ingredients right.

TJ: I dig it. I dig it. Especially the fact that you are able to take that blend of charcoal to cover the different particles as you're speaking nanometers. That's my nerd language. And that was gonna be my question, like, okay, cool. So. Are we, are we taking a one size fits all approach of like, hey, let's just, I assume that like the bigger the poor, it would just gonna be able to grab more of the carcinogens and I guess it's, um, you know, this one is just right.

What's that? What's that? Um,

it's not little Red Riding here. Thank you Goldilocks. I, I

Tara: Yeah.

TJ: little Red Riding Hood. Yeah, it's like Goldilocks, you know, can't be too big, can't be too small. It's gotta be just

right. Super interesting. I had no idea that's how it worked. How does that translate to that ever pressing smell of smoke?

And I say that because I'll never forget the first fire I went to, dear God, like 2005, 2006 or something, some year back then that I kept showering after the fact for like days and I would still smell that smoke. And looking back on it, the fact that I could still smell smoke in my hair after the fact, it's probably not a good sign.

So. But for a long time, that's how I, that's how I assumed, hey, if, if that smell of smoke is gone, then I'm good. Is that the right approach?

Tara: it's actually a great approach because if it's not coming back three days later, it, the smell is coming from those carcinogens still being on you in your body. Right? Um, my favorite thing though is firefighters being skeptical of my products. Firefighters have used. I don't know, probably dozens of products trying to get rid of that smoke smell before.

And there's nothing out there that's worked before. So especially when I first launched, everybody was super skeptical. Um, so it was, it was trying it and that, holy shit, this works moment, um, brings me great joy. Um, 'cause it does, I I have so many firefighters, their, their, their comment is, um, I went home and my wife asked, like, you said you went to a fire today.

Like, I don't smell it on you. Um, and it's, it's a lot of times their spouse. That's like, gives, you know, I don't, I don't smell it. Um, but also I hear from firefighters all the time that, you know, I used to smell like smoke for three days and I don't anymore. Um, yeah, it's, it's very rewarding to hear those things.

But, but absolutely it's that. That tie to the smell has something. There really is something there to it.

TJ: And you touched on that skepticism. And that's something that you and I talked about before, when the first time ever that we were mandated to use whatever commercial we made wipes. And I'll tell everybody this story that, you know, I, I was being, I was being good and I was wiping my hands and my face and behind the ears and the neck, and I don't know what they put in these wipes, but within two or three days, the skin was just like raw and like sloughing off.

Like I had such a horrendous reaction that I vowed to never use them again. Like the safety officer would get so upset at me, he'd be like, you have to get clean. Like it's a department order. I'm like, dude, my ear damn ear fell off the last time I'm not using this. I'll go back and I will like, I don't know, scrub myself with a stiff bristle brush or something before I use these stupid things.

Tara: And that is a hundred percent. Part of what I tried to do here is that I think, I think more, more people than not have probably had a bad experience with decon. It feels like a chore. It is wrecked your skin. It's, I mean, everybody has a different story. Um, but part of my approach here was I've got the science behind it.

I've developed this, so it truly works. So in that, though, I've developed products that leave you feeling good, leave you smelling good, and they, you know, they smell good. You like to use them? I've created products that firefighters like to use so that when you get back to the station, like you wanna go do that.

Um, right now we're actually releasing new scents that like, almost takes it from like a decon product to a lifestyle brand, if you will. It gives people options of like, I wanna smell like this after a fire. Something that you can enjoy. Um, so you're not running to those mainstream products that aren't actually removing the carcin gins.

You now have a product that will remove the carcin gins and give you what you want out of it.

TJ: Yeah, diff different flavors, if you will.

Tara: Totally not edible.

TJ: Not with that attitude. Anything's edible if you

believe in 

Tara: with that attitude.

TJ: Listen, you're saying they're non-toxic and they're good for you. So technically I should be able to chug it, right?

Tara: There are things that are non-toxic for your skin that you shouldn't be

TJ: That I should not

be chugging. 

Tara: just. 

TJ: It's got activated charcoal so when I'm throwing it up, it's actually not gonna

be that 

Tara: crazy marketing coming on.

TJ: God. Yeah. We have gone completely off the rails. Tell me more about, okay, we like, we'll nerd out a little bit longer 'cause these tests, right? Like there,

there will be, we talked about the skeptics, right?

We we're friends with John, who is an absolute mega nerd who is big into all the testing, all that using labs and, and nerds and whatnot. So tell me about validating the efficiency and the efficacy of your products. It's one thing for me to be like, smells good. It's good for the carcinogens. Cool. I know sometimes we don't like science, but let's talk about the science.

Tara: No, we. The science proves that it's working. So, uh, I'm all about it. Um, so our first testing that we did was, um, after the marshal fire. So the largest mixed structure, wildland fire that we've had in Colorado to date. Um, and firefighter was out fighting this fire afterwards, used the swabs from the lab that I use to take the carcinogens off of his skin, right?

Went back, showered with flame, then took another swab, swab, swabbed all over again. We sent that to my lab and they were able to look at that. And this was before they were able to break down exactly what carcinogens were in there, but they looked at it and they were able to tell, um, how much it had reduced.

Um, and this is under their high tech microscopes and. FDI, I don't know this 

TJ: For your transform infrared.

Tara: a John nerd. I just know that they do their job really well and they can, they, and now with that equipment, they can tell exactly what carcinogens are in there. So like they are looking at the nitty gritty, right?

So after Marshall Fire, they, they compared this and the carcinogens after the fire super high. And then afterwards it was so low that they then took a blank stick and ran it and it came back almost identical to their blank swab. 'cause they were like, di like was this used? Like, they could tell that we had actually used it, but it was almost identical.

So then. Our next round of testing because we wanna do that again once they can actually break down and see the carcinogens in it. Right? Like their technology's advanced. Let's a advance it. So at F-D-I-C-A couple of years ago, um, Bobby Ecker and his team Gro Fire Tactics, they took swabs out to their burn site and after, I mean, they're stoker after stoking the fire all day, swabs himself and then, you know, puts seals that up, takes a shower with flame swabs himself again, again, sent that for back for testing.

Um, and then they were able to break down the exact carcinogens that were on him after stoking that fire all day and then ran it. And carcinogens were non-detectable on his skin afterwards. They just weren't there.

TJ: Can't fight that at all.

That's it's, that's, that's real life.

Tara: Yeah, absolutely. Super, super rewarding to get that back. And it just, it was very humbling too because while I knew that the science was there and I, you know, I had done the research to know the science was there. I then verified it with the scientists then to come back and have that testing come back. I knew I was actually making a difference in firefighters' lives and that I could truly reduce the rate of fi cancer in the fire service with these products.

TJ: Yeah, because I think it's important to realize that, uh, cancer reduction is, it's not that silver bullet, right? It's a thousand golden s that we talk about in business all the time. It's, you have to do so many things to reduce it. Just saying, Hey, I'm going to, I dunno, this is gonna piss people off, gonna have a clean cab engine that's gonna reduce cancer. Eh, hey, we're gonna have this certain type of turnout gear, okay? Like by themselves in on islands, whatever, negligible. But if you are cognizant about the turnout gear, look, I'm always gonna shit on clean cabs, even though my engine was clean cab, but hate them. I think they're stupid. But you have legitimate turnout gear that's not going to pack you full of PFAS.

You have diesel mitigation in the firehouse. Diesel exhaust mitigation. Uh, you have the right dcon procedures. Okay, now you're hitting it from multiple angles. You're Deon yourself. You're taking the right holistic, multi-prong approach to fixing the cancer exposure, the carcinogen exposure issue

Tara: Yeah, I think that, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

TJ: No, you go ahead.

Tara: I think that this is, this is one of those things that you have to look at, um, very holistically. It's like you're going through your fire service career and your life, right? You have to look at all of these different situations you're in, and remember, you are inhaling, absorbing through your skin and ingesting.

So then take each of those situations that you're in and and figure out how those toxins are getting into your body and try to eliminate that if you can. Right? So you are in the fire station, you've come back from a call, you haven't washed your hands, you've gone and touched all kinds of things. You need to wipe down those surfaces.

So then later on, after you have washed your hands and washed your body, you're not coming back and recontaminating yourself. You are out at a training burn, and we know that testicular cancer is very high for firefighters. If you're not washing your hands before you go to the bathroom, you've been feeding them carcinogens for years.

What did you expect to happen? You just have to think through each of these scenarios and figure out where you're putting these toxic chemicals in your life. And so then stepping away from the firehouse, looking your kitchen, what are you washing your dishes with? Are you washing your dishes with Dawn, the same thing that you're washing yourself with out at the fire ground because Dawn has carcinogenic ingredients in it.

Why are you putting that on your plate that you're eating off of

all of these little things. So with, with that though, there, it gets overwhelming and I've al I'm always hesitant to really talk about all of the different aspects of life with it. Because it seems intimidating. So my thought on it though is do one thing at a time. Make one habit switch at a time.

Download an app like the Yuca app where you can go and scan the bell code of every product in your house and it'll tell you if it's toxic or not. If how it's toxic, what ingredients are toxic, it'll recommend other products that you can use. Um, EWG Skindeep does the same thing. They have an app as well.

Um, and just slowly swap out things. 'cause then once you're, you swap those things out in your house, that part's taken care of. Um, just that holistic approach of just seeing where you are in life and where the chemicals are coming from.

TJ: Yeah. 'cause I think if we start really digging into it, it's so easy to end up like bubble boy and being like, dude, I can't touch anything. Look at anything. It's all gonna gimme cancer. So what are the top three things that you would recommend to start making that lifestyle change for firefighters specifically, because obviously the cancer rates in firefighters are astronomically higher compared to the everyday human being.

So what three things can we start doing today to start reducing that?

Tara: Um, I'm trying to figure out which side of this I want to go on. I, I wanna go on a couple of sides of it 

TJ: All right. 

Tara: Um, okay. So, so one outside of Dcon, um, your physical fitness, being overweight is proven to be, you're, you're at a higher risk for cancer, right? So while there are people out there browbeating about physical fitness in the, in the fire service, that's another risk factor for cancer.

Um, working out actually produces an enzyme that turns into a protein. And I don't know the sciencey stuff that actually fights cancer. Um, so I think working out and being physically fit as a firefighter is a really important thing. Your sleep, um, disruptions in circadian rhythm that increases your risk for cancer.

I know that that is something that, that is unavoidable in the fire service, but off shift you need to make sure you're getting good sleep and resetting that circadian rhythm. Um,

also I made notes,

TJ: I love

it. 

Tara: also clean up your eating habits. Um, I think that goes right along with physical fitness, but you look at. These things that firefighters are consuming all the time. The energy drinks, the Cheetos, the what have you, um, have, they're terrible for you. They have so many bad ingredients that are just terrible for your body and tearing you apart inside out.

Um, that I think it's really important aspect to look at. Taking it back to the other side, the decon side, again, it's that holistic approach, but you are the one who will get cancer in the end. So one, make sure, of course I'm biased here, but that your body is cleaned and cleaned properly. Um. Then look at things.

I, I'm not a big, I, I'm not a clean cab person at all. I, I don't subscribe to that bullshit. I think that if you are on the way to a call and you have, um, you haven't done search yet, you haven't done a size up yet, you don't know who's in that building and there's a 2-year-old that died because you had a clean cab, that's complete bullshit.

So I don't subscribe to that. What I do subscribe to though is mitigating your risk where you can, and I'm gonna bring up something I haven't talked about in a while, is I know there are a lot of people out there who think that working out in gear is an absolute must for the fire service, and I just don't think it is.

I think that you're putting yourself at a higher risk of cancer because that outer layer that's sprayed with PFAS to make it oil and water resistant, um, as it as it ages, the more it ages, the more it sloughs off, the more you ab absorb it and ingest it and inhale it. So the more you're putting yourself at risk, if you are going to work out in gear, make sure you're deconning afterwards, um, and protecting your airway somehow because you're breathing heavier, you're, you're breathing it in during that.

Um, and then doing things like keep keeping your kitchen area, your sleeping area clean, washing your hands before you go to the bathroom, those kind of things.

TJ: So you probably triggered a lot of people who believe in working out in gear. And

Tara: I, yeah.

TJ: tell me more. Go on.

Tara: So the reason that I stopped talking about this is because the more I would talk about it, the harder they would go

TJ: Oh yeah.

And that's 

Tara: more I talked about it, the more people that worked out in gear, the more people they encouraged to work out in gear. And I've had many conversations with them about it and I understand their viewpoint on it.

But I also think that there are ways to do this differently where if you, you know, wear a weighted vest, get a, get a one of those air restricting masks, that isn't your pack. I mean, I think there are other ways around this, and I still think that working out in gear is an ego thing.

TJ: I am using that as a soundbite and it is going to piss off so many

Tara: God.

TJ: I tend to take the more You are welcome. You are welcome. Um, as with most, yeah, as with most things in life, I believe that it is nuanced and that it's not a black or white, it's the shades of gray. I remember I had an officer who. Preach checking the apparatus with fire gloves on because that's how you're gonna get the dexterity and everything, and that's how you're gonna learn to use those things. Yes. At the same time, I think we approach a lot of things in the fire service as if you just forget all of those things every day as if there's no adaptation, as if suddenly, because I did not check the ladder truck with gloves on one day, I am literally having nubs instead of fingers anymore. Like the dexterity is still gonna be there, hopefully, right?

Unless I just, I don't know, 51st states and I just forget my life from the previous three days immediately.

Tara: It is still gonna be there. I know plenty of firefighters who are absolutely kick ass firefighters who are the best they can be at their job, who don't work out in gear.

TJ: I mean, we know firefighters who are amazing, who don't even work out,

and those are like the outliers that it's like, uh, it's kind of hard to push an agenda when you look at these guys who, you know, smoke a pack a day, eat McDonald's and everybody else is huffing and puffing, and you're like, how is this old bastard running laps around me?

This is ridiculous. Yeah, I

Tara: I have to tell you. So I, um, when I go out to Ecker Fire Tactics trainings, they are incredible and they make sure that I get the most out of it out there. They, they want me to grow my business. Of course, they want everybody to know about Flame. They completely believe in it, but they also give me opportunities to go into their trading burns, um, so that I can learn more about the fire service and about, um, what you guys do.

I'm constantly talking to firefighters just to learn more about you guys, what you guys do, so that I can continue developing products and developing the company to truly serve you guys. Um, my, my bragging moment though is the first time I went in. Um, I won't say the firefighter who took me in, 'cause I don't wanna call him on the carpet here, but we're, uh, we're going through and he goes, it wa it wasn't Bobby.

It wasn't Bobby.

TJ: I'm gonna use that soundbite from King of the Hill. Dang it, Bobby. Anyway,

Tara: We're, we're going through though. And he's, he goes, hold on a second. I wanna check your air. And he checks my air and he goes, Tara, what the fuck? You're using less air than me. I was like, I know

TJ: I. Imagine

if you worked out in gear, you would use a lot less air.

Just putting 

Tara: using much air anyway.

TJ: I'm just putting that out there.

You would like not 

Tara: time in a fire.

TJ: Okay. So now that we have the pitchfork mob out after us, thank you very much for telling them not to work out in gear.

Tara: This is what I do.

TJ: Let's, um, let's switch gears a little bit. So I know about the shampoo and the body wash because you talked about it. What else do you have out there in the line of Flame Decon products?

Tara: So hand soap 

TJ: Okay, 

Tara: you can wash those gubby fingers before you go to the bathroom and before you eat because you don't wanna ingest or absorb. Um, we have laundry detergent and a shave soap just 'cause the guys asked for shave soap. So I was like, I guess

TJ: with good flavors, I hope for the shave soap.

Tara: they,

Jesus.

TJ: And I assume it's the same formulation for all of them. And it's interesting that you got into the, um, the laundry stuff because I think that further that, that takes that holistic approach that we're talking about, it's like, okay, the person now, the clothing, because that's not something we think about too much.

It's like, oh, it's gonna get washed, it'll be fine, will it?

Tara: So

TJ: I.

Tara: one, our laundry detergent is not for turnout gears for everything else, right? We have guys using it to, to clean their hoods, their helmet liners, all of their clothes underneath station wear, I mean, everything else, right? Um, with that though, we've seen thankfully, like the bags and gear and family equipment that was going home.

With firefighters and being turned into diaper bags and purses and thankfully we've seen that qu fall by the wayside. I think a lot of people are learning about turnout gear and, and the cost there to the family. Um, but the same goes for your clothing. If you are wearing clothes home that you've been at the fire station in where all these carcinogens have been traced back, where diesel exhaust fum has been there and you go home and you hug your toddler, you are then sharing those carcinogens with your toddler.

There was a study done in Kitsap County, a few Washington a few years ago, um, where it was studying the cancer rates in children of firefighters. And what that study found was, I think it was like one in 500 fire firefighters kids got cancer compared to 1.7 in 10,000 children in the general population,

TJ: God.

Tara: Yeah, heartbreaking and scary as hell. You look at that and you go, okay, that's still like a quarter of a percentage, right? But take a large department with a thousand firefighters, that's two kids in that department. You don't want two kids in your department to get cancer because of their dad's job.

TJ: And that's

on top of the fertility issues and the

miscarriage rates and

every other thing that we've studied, that the, the more that we talk about it, the more we realize, like this wrecks families. If you're not smart about it.

Tara: Absolutely, absolutely. So, um, I think it's really important too. Not be sharing those carcinogens with your children. And one of those ways is through your clothing. Um, this was actually a product that was developed because firefighters were asking for it. I had firefighters using our shampoo and body wash to launder their clothing.

A a lot of them. Um, our buddy Jot It, rescue One included, um, one, 

TJ: it kind of hard to launder clothes when you're in the office though 

Tara: What's that? 

TJ: I said kind of 

Tara: worked in the office. 

TJ: When he's stuck in the office, he's gonna be so mad when he hears it. He is be

like, fuck you. I'm back in the field.

Tara: so, 

TJ: His hard life of updating life packs. Yeah. Lots of carcinogens there.

Tara: Oh my 

TJ: be furious. Interesting that they were using them for the, for a purpose that would, is not specified.

Tara: Totally. So then last year. Last year, year before at FTIC, again, refi tactics. I said, this is a different year than the other testing. I said, after your, after your burn building days, bring me your laundry. And I took all their laundry back to my Airbnb and I washed their clothes for them so that I could test our laundry detergent.

TJ: That

poor Airbnb owner is like, what the fuck happened to my washer and dryer?

Tara: Why is there this black stuff?

TJ: Right. And you

mentioned the clothing. It, it reminds me of something that one of the guys, Nick Lindsay said in a previous podcast episode, which really resonated, is that for him, he makes it a point to never wear his uniform home because it is now time to be dad.

It is now time to be, not Nick the firefighter, but Nick the dad. And be in that mindset, get, start getting that shift in, in the thought process, in the feelings and the actions and now we have more evidence that it's important to do that. Like for the mental sake. Yes. And also for not bringing carcinogens to your kids because maybe it was a chill day, maybe it was just 12 hours, maybe it wasn't anything crazy, but by virtue of being at a firehouse around the gear that's offgassing all the time around the apparatus that is spewing out the diesel into the bay, still bring those scogs or you know, you just happen to rub by a wall.

That's somebody ended up, I don't know, with their turnout gear on and now you just pick that shit up.

Tara: Absolutely. I love that mindset shift too of the, the getting home and just the mindset shift to the family life, um, as opposed to the fire life. I think that just helps the, you know, automatically transition. Um, so I wanna talk about one, um, a little bit about the laundry detergent, but then I wanna talk more about kids.

Around the fire service. Um, so one, our laundry detergent is, so you mentioned something about the formulations. So our, our activated charcoal blend is the same in everything. Um, the shave soap is, um, different in that it has stuff that helps it, like glide on the skin, right? So that's different than the regular soap in that way.

Um, our laundry detergent, we took out all of the, like, foamy ingredients and we added an enzyme. So these enzymes break down the fats, oils, carbs, sugars that bind these carcinogens to the close, and then the activated charcoal is then able to do its job, get close to it, bind to it, and wash it away. So that's why the, the, the laundry detergent works and works so well for what you guys do.

Um, so then let's circle back to kids around the fire service because I think this is an important topic to, to talk more about. So you have firefighters going home with carcin engines on them. We wanna make sure they're not doing that. But also kids love visiting the fire station, right? And we're not gonna take that away from these babies.

They love it, but I think it's really important to be mindful of when they're there, don't let them touch things and then put their hands in their mouths, which kids love to do. Kids are constantly putting their hands in their mouth. I think watch that super closely decon them when you get home. Decon their clothes when you get home.

Um, make sure, you know, before they eat at the station, they're washing their hands. I think all these little things that we can do to help mitigate their risk as well is super important. I'll also say like, we don't know for sure where these cancer rates in children are coming from. It was one study, it was a small study, and we don't know if it is.

Solely the carcinogens that they're coming across, or if it's that mom or dad has been a firefighter for so many years that they've passed that on through DNA changes. We don't know. Um, but all we can do is, is protect the kids the best we can.

TJ: Right. Sort of make that assumption in the right direction and work off of it.

Tara: Absolutely.