For Paul Cotter, being a firefighter wasn’t a job, it was a calling. Nearly three decades of running toward danger, including a three-alarm fire where he broke through two doors and crawled into an inferno to save a man trapped on the third floor.

Then came a phone call from his doctor. Cancer.

His wife, Diane Cotter, says she screamed when she found out. And she says, as Paul began to slip further and further away, one question haunted her: how does this happen to someone so healthy?

Diane knew the risks everyone associates with firefighting: smoke, toxins and diesel exhaust. But she had also seen the numbers: cancer is now the leading cause of line-of-duty death for firefighters. And she couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to the story.

So, she went to the basement and pulled out Paul’s turnout gear, the uniform designed to protect him. What she noticed stopped her cold: the material was especially degraded in one specific area.

Diane cut small samples from the gear and sent them to a researcher at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Graham Peaslee. When the results came back, Diane says she was floored.

In this episode of The Truth of the Matter, Diane Cotter joins Natasha Zouves to tell the story of what she found, why she went public, and what it could mean for firefighters across the country.

 
Watch the podcast episode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1UvkRP9SA&list=PL6PrA6lo8rJIaFbc0VZfFz4xcY8d6vaR6
 
READ the Growing Broke Forever Chemicals Investigation: 
https://www.newsnationnow.com/prime/pfas-forever-chemicals-sludge-farmers/
 
Watch the full Growing Broke documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIdCgjDoB1U
 

Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 

The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.

Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.

This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.

You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066

https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF

Connect with host Natasha Zouves