By Dongyun Kwon
A Healesville resident nominated as one of four Victorian finalists for Australian of the Year.
Fire Rescue Victoria Assistant Chief Fire Officer Michael Tisbury AFSM said he was very honoured and blown away.
“There are a lot more deserving people. They really deserve a pat on the back because it means they’ve made a positive impact on somebody’s life,” he said.
“I should be very proud of being nominated. I am just a firefighter who is passionate about the safety of firefighters. That’s my job and that’s what I do.”
Mr Tisbury has received acknowledgment for his efforts to protect firefighters from harmful per-fluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and ground-breaking work in Victoria.
“PFAS is a family of toxic chemicals that were manufactured by trim and it is linked to a whole lot of different illnesses including various cancers. Our exposure has really come to our firefighting foam contained PFAS,” Mr Tisbury said.
“The reason why I am so passionate about it is because I’ve been to too many funerals of firefighters. The majority of those firefighters have died because they got cancer.”.
His journey started in 2011 when he became aware of PFAS through the documentation in regard to CFI official training.
“There were significant levels of PFAS in the water which we used for drilling. But, there’s very little information about it and nobody could tell me the safe and unsafe levels of PFAS,” Mr Tisbury said.
“That’s why I started doing my own research and reaching out to people overseas.”
To find a solution to reduce the level of PFAS in human blood, Mr Tisbury conducted a 12-month clinical trial.
He divided three cohorts of firefighters to find out the best way.
One cohort didn’t do anything to just test how quickly the body naturally gets rid of PFAS, another cohort donated their blood every three months and the other cohort donated their plasma every six weeks.
Mr Tisbury said the result was outstanding.
“We were aiming for a 5 per cent reduction in PFAS levels over a 12-month period. What we’ve achieved was an average of about a 30 per cent reduction in the plasma donation cohort and a 10 per cent reduction in the blood donation cohort,” he said.
“That was really exciting and eco peer-reviewed was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and is now been adopted by a number of international countries as a treatment for people.”
Mr Tisbury has worked for Fire Rescue Victoria since 1989.
“I love being a firefighter. I love being there to help members of the community when they are probably the most vulnerable, but, at the same time, I want to make the environment of firefighters as safe as I can,” Mr Tisbury said.
Mr Tisbury has been pivotal in FRV’s work to remediate fire stations and equipment that have been contaminated by historical use of PFAS, including a project to remediate FRV’s Corio fire station which brought PFAS concentration in surface and water runoff at the station to levels well below the ecological screening criteria.
He also led a project to rid all FRV appliances and equipment of historical PFAS contamination, which was completed in 2022, and resulted in two-thirds of FRV’s equipment having PFAS levels that meet the criteria for safe drinking water.
Fire Rescue Commissioner Gavin Freeman AFSM said Mr Tisbury’s efforts were outstanding and had led to safer conditions for firefighters globally.
“ACFO Tisbury has left no stone unturned in his work to rid firefighting of harmful PFAS contamination and should be commended for his exceptional work, which has undoubtedly reduced the risks that firefighters face in their line of work,” Mr Freeman said.
Victoria will name a single finalist for Australian of the Year in a ceremony on 14 November.
The Australian of the Year will be announced on Australia Day.
