NEWS
Green chemistry and chemical substitution
Jonathan Crozier, pinfa Sector Group manager, Cefic, and Chris Thornton, consultant, explained that PIN flame retardant fire safety solutions are essential to support EU objectives of bio-economy, sus...
READ MORESmoke toxicity
Anna Stec, UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire), UK, gave her vision of smoke toxicity from fires involving today’s synthetic materials (see summaries of her recent papers in pinfa Newsletters n...
READ MOREInnovative flame retardancy applications
Alexis Chopin, Eurostar Engineering Plastics, presented radiation-activated cross-linking processes which can improve polymer heat stability and fire performance. In addition to reducing polymer decom...
READ MOREPIN flame retardants for 3D-printing
José-Marie Lopez-Cuesta, C2MA Mines d’Alès, France, outlined the importance of developing performance flame retardants for 3D printing. 3D printed objects show high fire risk, because objects are...
READ MOREFrance maintains construction fire safety obligations
The French Parliament is currently processing proposed legislation to enable the Government to simplify by decree certain construction regulation constraints, in order to authorise alternative constru...
READ MOREEU LIFE-FLAREX: substituting halogenated textile FRs
The EU-funded LIFE-FLAREX project aims to replace halogenated flame retardants in home textiles, applying the substitution principle to REACH SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern) and PBT (Persistent...
READ MORETypical everyday tragedies
Big catastrophic fires make the headlines, but the daily small fires which kill and ruin lives are mostly forgotten. The US National Fire Protection Association magazine reminds us of these everyday t...
READ MOREWHICH magazine call for safer home appliances
The UK’s leading consumer magazine has launched an “End Dangerous Products” campaign, calling for reforms of the UK’s product safety regulations and for manufacturers to “Stop making cold ap...
READ MORECall for protocol on circular economy chemicals safety
A coalition of EU environmental NGOs has called for a legally binding SAICM protocol on transparency of hazardous chemicals in recycled materials and the circular economy. The NGOs also call for bans...
READ MORE“Naturally non-flammable” cellulose fibres in PBT
An article in Kunstoffe International presents successful development of high performance, fire resistant electrical components using bio-sourced cellulose fibres and PIN flame retardants. Purified n...
READ MOREFatal fires are a social issue
A study of fatal fires in Norway by RISE shows that fire risk is not equally shared and that some social groups are much more vulnerable. 567 people died in 513 different fires in Norway over the ten...
READ MORETextile ZDHC validates GreenScreen for conformance
The textile and synthetic leather processing ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) has recognised GreenScreen CertifiedTM as an indicator of Level 1 MRSL Conformance (MRSL = Manufacturing Restr...
READ MOREECHA compiling list of all flame retardant chemicals
ECHA (the European Chemicals Agency) has written to a number of REACH Lead registrants requesting confirmation that declared use of a registered chemical as “flame retardant” is non-confidential....
READ MOREContinuing growth for PIN flame retardants
A global market study (Mordor) anticipates growth of 6.2% per year for PIN flame retardants for the period 2018-2023, from a global value of 1.4 billion USD in 2016. The study considers that growth wi...
READ MORERussia shopping centre fire security questions
64 people, including many children, died in a fire at the Winter Cherry shopping mall, Kemerovo, Siberia, Sunday 25th March. The shopping mall was created in a former bakery factory in 2013. Media rep...
READ MORETowards a Safe Chemicals Innovation Agenda
Pinfa participated at a workshop led by the Netherlands Government on 28th March discussed how to ensure that chemicals substitution leads to safe-by-design chemicals, rather than incremental replacem...
READ MOREEU Human Bio-Monitoring programme to study FRs
HBM4EU, an EU Horizon2020 project, has published an initial screening study to identify priority chemicals relevant for human bio-monitoring (HBM). From 62 flame retardants initially considered (along...
READ MOREFuture Sky – risk of fire, smoke and fumes in aircraft
The EU-funded (Horizon 2020) project Future Sky Safety brings together 33 partners and €30 million budget to develop new tools and approaches for aeronautics safety. The project notes that 50% of ai...
READ MOREEU strategy for plastics in the circular economy
The European Commission has published a Communication (strategy) and action plan to develop the circular economy for plastics. Proposed targets include, by 2030, recycling of at least half of waste pl...
READ MOREEU dangerous product alert system (RAPEX)
The EU has published its 2017 report on the ‘Rapid Alert System’ for dangerous products, showing that the system is increasingly used by Member States. 2201 alerts were issued in 2017, resulting i...
READ MORETCO Generation 8 open for comment
TCO, the health, environment and worker protection label for office and home electronics, has published draft TCO Certified Generation 8 criteria for comment until 31st May 2018. The draft is present...
READ MOREPhosphorus: compliance checks, Critical Raw Material
ECHA (the European Chemicals Agency) has updated the list of chemicals “potentially subject” to REACH compliance checks (27/11/2017). This list includes “Red phosphorus” (EC# 918-594-3) which...
READ MOREpinfa North America workshop in Dearborn, MI
Within the heart of the North American automotive market pinfa North America in conjunction with SAMPE held a conference on April 4-5th 2018 entitled “Meeting Fire Safety Requirements for Ground Tra...
READ MORECEN workshop on Sustainable Chemicals
CEN/CENELEC, the European standardisation bodies, are organising a stakeholder workshop on standardisation needs for sustainable chemicals and for chemicals in the circular economy / secondary raw mat...
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