NEWS
Building Fire Safety
Oliver Loebel, PU Europe, explained that fires in buildings are changing, with more goods, electronic equipment and comfort materials, and more complex buildings, both for offices and public buildings...
READ MOREConclusions: need for action
Adrian Beard, pinfa Vice-Chairman (Clariant), summarised the workshop discussions. Further research and action is needed in the following areas: Need for better fire statistics, both to have reli...
READ MOREDevelopments in PIN flame retardant technologies
Marianne Cochez, Université de Lorraine, France and José-Marie Lopez Cuesta, Ecole des Mines d’Alès, France, presented a range of developments in PIN flame retardant technologies. Technologies of...
READ MOREINFLAME project
Stuart Harrad, University of Birmingham UK presented concerns about population exposure to flame retardants. Past-generation halogenated flame retardants (e.g. PBDEs, HBCD) have been found in human bl...
READ MOREHealth and environment
Frank Kuebart, eco-INSTITUT Germany, presented a comparison of criteria concerning flame retardants in 65 ecolabels and sustainability standards worldwide. Key health and environment criteria for flam...
READ MOREBuilding fire safety challenges
Hans Beele, Beele Engineering (passive fire safety specialists), questioned the difference between what fire safety regulations require on paper and reality in installations, due to the gap between co...
READ MORESmoke fatalities and smoke toxicity
James Robinson, Fire Safe Europe, underlined that fire kills 12 people every day in the EU, and costs 126 billion €/year. An important problem is the lack of adequate fire statistics in nearly all c...
READ MORENeed for reliable fire statistics
Dominique Parisse, Plastics Europe (and previously with the French State fire and safety services), further developed the current inadequacies of fire statistics in Europe. ISO 17755-2, under develop...
READ MOREFires are fast and deadly
Anja Hofmann, BAM Germany, summarised lessons from full-scale fire tests and fire modelling. Full-scale building fire tests were carried out in 2014 by BAM with the Fire Services of Frankfurt (TIBRO p...
READ MOREResponsible approach to flame retardant use
Michael Klimes, pinfa Chairman (Nabaltec), opened the meeting with the challenges faced by the fire safety sector today. The green awakening which started with Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” in...
READ MOREB&C workshop
The industry – expert B&C workshop organised by pinfa, Brussels, 3rd November 2015, brought together 60 specialists and industry leaders from Europe, Asia and North America, to discuss question...
READ MORERegulatory news
Consultation: ECHA (the European Chemical Agency) has opened a public consultation to 18th February 2016 on proposals to subject 11 additional chemicals to REACH “Authorisation”. This effectively...
READ MOREPrysmian PIN FP Cables for Art’s sake
Over 5 km of Prysmian FP Plus PIN fire resistant cables have been installed in Edinburgh College of Art as part of a fire safety upgrade of two of the Edinburgh University’s Lauriston Campus buildin...
READ MOREFate of phosphorus FRs in sewage works
The fate of ten phosphorus ester flame retardants (aryls and alkyls) in activated sludge and advanced oxidation process sewage works was assessed in five sewage works in Spain. Concentrations detected...
READ MOREPresafer new applications for PreniphorTM
Presafer has extended its PreniphorTM PIN flame retardant range with performance products for polypropylene and for epoxy resins. PreniphorTM EPFR-100D is a P-N (phosphorus and nitrogen) based flame r...
READ MOREUNEP Energy Globe Award for PIN flame retardants
Interiorproject Ltd has been awarded the Bulgarian national Energy Globe Award for its PIN flame retardants for porous polymers. The Energy Globe Awards www.energyglobe.info are a World Environment Da...
READ MOREHigh flexibility PIN flame retardant ducting
Industrial dust-extraction ducting specialist, Eximo Australia, has launched speedLock CNCFlex PIN flame retardant polyether-polyethylene ducting. This is for dust and particle suction in woodworking...
READ MORENew silicon based PIN FRs for greener plastics
The final report has been published for the EU-funded (FP7) project FR GREENSI (New silicon-based halogen-free flame retardants for greener plastics). The project developed silicone derived FRs for po...
READ MORELife cycle assessment of FRs in electronics
As a part of the EU-funded ENFIRO project (see pinfa Newsletter n°36), a life cycle assessment of use of flame retardants in electronics was carried out. The summary conclusions have now been peer-re...
READ MOREPIN flame retardants market growth
Global flame retardant markets are expected to continue to grow over coming years according to several recent studies, with particular development in several specialised PIN flame retardant sectors. L...
READ MOREFire safety theme park
A new “fire safety theme park” in Tianjin, North-East China, allows visitors to experience the difficulties of evacuating from fire with limited visibility, here with a maze filled with orange smo...
READ MORENon-FR polystyrene blamed for nightclub tragedy
Sixty people were killed by fire in the Collectiv nightclub, Bucharest, 30th October, including the bassist of the band on stage Goodbye to Gravity. The band’s pyrotechnics ignited non fire safety t...
READ MOREFire testing of flat panel TVs
Six models of flat-panel 32-40 inch TVs (3 samples of each one) were fire tested to assess ignition resistance, heat release, smoke and toxic gas emissions. 3 x 3 TVs were purchased in South America (...
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