Mission

FIRE SAFETY

Phosphorus, Inorganic and Nitrogen (PIN) flame retardants protect people from death and injury in fire. They are used to improve the fire safety of materials and to meet safety standards in consumer goods, buildings, transport and industry.

PIN flame retardants prevent fire from starting or delay its development, allowing more time for people to escape.

Smoke and toxic fire gases are often the biggest danger in fires because of toxicity, immobilisation of victims and visual inhibition of escape. PIN flame retardants reduce gas emissions by reducing burning, and tend to ensure low-smoke and reduced gas corrosivity.

ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH

PIN flame retardants are non-halogenated. Our goal is to limit risks to human health and the environment in the production, use and end-of-life of fire-safe products.

We work with environmental groups, scientists and others to assess and improve our products across environmental and health benchmarks.

COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATION

pinfa works in partnership with stakeholders (NGOs, environmental, consumer associations, scientists, regulators, fire safety experts, user industries…) to ensure safe use of flame retardant products. pinfa commits to:

• Building on existing chemical assessment systems, addressing data gaps and improving assessment of exposure
  
  
• Accepting that FRs are generally persistent in order to be durably effective, and investigating the best ways to manage this while retaining their effectives and usefulness
  
  
• Accepting that FRs may have acute Hazard Phrases, and investigating ways to minimise exposure while ensuring they do their important job
  
  
• Taking into consideration the full life cycle (including production, disposal, biodegradation …)
  
  
• Taking into account release risk
  
  
• Developing appropriate criteria for assessing the safety of inorganic flame retardant components (existing criteria are largely designed for organics)
  
  
• Defining how to treat areas where information is not available