With China's economic development and the improvement of people's living standards, the hidden dangers of fire accidents are becoming increasingly prominent. Fire safety has become an important issue in national economic and social life. Adding flame retardants to flammable materials to make them become flammable materials has become an important means of controlling fire occurrence from the source. A press conference was held on September 12 in Beijing by the China Society of Fire Retardant and the Bromine Science and Environment Forum (BSEF). The important role of scientific use of flame retardants in preventing fire disasters was emphasized. At the same time, a large number of scientific facts and data were used to reveal the safety of bromine flame retardants and clarify some misconceptions in society.
Fire retardant is indispensable for fire safety
Han Songqing, Vice Chairman of the Forum on Bromine Science and Environment, said that the use of new polymer materials and electronic equipment had increased significantly, and that the risk of fire would be greatly increased if the flame retardant treatment was not strictly applied. Therefore, the use of flame retardants has become particularly important. She also mentioned: "There are still some misunderstandings about flame retardants in the society at present. One is that flame retardants are indispensable and have little effect; the other is that only halogen-free flame retardants are green and environmentally friendly, and halogenation-free flame retardants are the future direction of development.
"There is no doubt that fire retardants are indispensable for fire safety." Han Songqing said, "The efficacy of flame retardants has been proved by many scientific facts. Five types of products were tested by the Commerce Department of the National Bureau of Standards. The overall efficacy of flame retardants in polystyrene TV case, polyphenyl ether computer case, cushion seat filled with polyurethane foam plastic, cable with polyethylene wire insulation coated with rubber and polyester circuit board were tested. The results show that the escape time of a room using flame retardant materials is 15 times longer than that of a room without flame retardant materials. The European Commission's assessment also shows that the use of flame retardants has reduced fire deaths in Europe by 20% over the past 10 years.
Most brominated flame retardants are safe and reliable
In response to the statement that brominated flame retardants have been banned, Han Songqing said: "In fact, brominated flame retardants are still widely used in developed economies such as Europe and the United States. At the regulatory level, only hexabromocyclododecane is the brominated flame retardant proposed by Stockholm Convention for the prohibition period at present; for the European Union, only hexabromocyclododecane and decabromodiphenyl ether are brominated flame retardants covered by the authorized list and candidate list of high-concern substances in REACH, while the RoHS directive limits only two brominated flame retardants, polybrominated biphenyl and polybrominated diphenyl ether, in electronic appliances. Application. China's "Regulations on Pollution Control and Management of Electronic Information Products" only limits the use of polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Overall, only one hexabromocyclododecane is currently completely banned from use in more than 70 commercialized brominated flame retardants. Brominated flame retardants have not been completely banned, as has been rumored in society.
On the human and environmental safety of brominated flame retardants, the European Union's risk assessment also gives a scientific answer: the vast majority of brominated flame retardants have been strictly assessed and proved harmless to human and environment. According to Dr. Jyurgen Troitzsch, a German fire scientist, most brominated flame retardants do not carry toxic labels, and many brominated flame retardants (such as tetrabromobisphenol A in dosage ** are even less acute toxic than table salt. The risk assessment of tetrabromobisphenol A by the European Union in 2006 concluded that its release during use was negligible and did not pose a threat to human health. At the end of 2013, the Canadian government released a risk assessment report on tetrabromobisphenol A, which also showed that tetrabromobisphenol A did not pose a threat to the environment and human health.
In the past two years, the contaminant team of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has made a lot of assessments on possible brominated flame retardants in food, including polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, hexabromocyclododecane and tetrabromobisphenol A. It is concluded that there are no health risks in the assessed brominated flame retardants and their presence in food should not cause concern.
Robert Campbell, chairman of the Forum on Bromine Sciences and Environment, said that the notion that flame retardants release dioxins in normal use (e.g. in electronic and electrical equipment) was ridiculous and had no scientific basis. The conversion of chemical substances is conditional. It is impossible for any brominated flame retardant to produce dioxins through chemical reaction at room temperature. Normal use and recovery of brominated flame retardants will also not increase the emission of toxic and harmful gases in the air. Only a few brominated flame retardants with incomplete combustion will form dioxins. Large-scale incineration experiments of plastic waste in Europe have also proved that the production of dioxins and furans is not directly related to the bromine content in waste. Recent studies by Dr. Matthew Blais and Dr. Karen Carpenter of the Southwest Research Institute in the United States show that cushion furniture with brominated flame retardants does not increase dioxins and other toxic and harmful gases when burned.
Blind substitution increases security risks
In recent years, some downstream users of brominated flame retardants, especially manufacturers of electronic equipment, have to adopt non-halogen flame retardants instead of brominated flame retardants due to some misunderstandings and pressure from some environmental protection organizations. However, the risks brought by this practice are obvious. In 2010, Panasonic Electric Appliances used red phosphorus flame retardant instead of bromine flame retardant in its refrigerator products to meet halogen-free requirements. As a result, it had to recall 360,000 refrigerators that year and re-use bromine flame retardant in the replacement parts.
Zhou Zhengmao, secretary-general of the China Society of Flame Retardant, said that many factors should be taken into account in the selection of flame retardants, such as compatibility with materials, cost performance, fire resistance and flame retardant stability. Different flame retardants have their own advantages in different application fields according to their flame retardant mechanism and matching degree with the flame retardant materials. It is not necessary to substitute blindly, but may increase new risks. Compared with the brominated flame retardants with long application time and perfect risk assessment data, the toxicology and environmental impact of other types of flame retardants are less studied, and the possibility of unknown risk is greater. A recent study by the University of Amsterdam has also shown that halogen-based flame retardant substitutes often lack sufficient ecotoxicity test data.
Compared with other flame retardants, brominated flame retardants show better recyclability and stability in waste recycling. Plastics containing bromine flame retardants can maintain the same mechanical properties and fire grade as the original materials after recycling. Studies in Japan, the United States and Europe have shown that plastics containing brominated flame retardants can retain their mechanical and flame retardant properties after repeated recycling. The EU risk assessment report also shows that electronic and electrical equipment containing flame retardants can be treated in an environmentally friendly manner, fully meeting the requirements of the WEEE (scrap electronic and electrical equipment) directive and EU emission regulations.
