MISSION

Members of pinfa share the common vision of continuously improving the environmental and health profile of their flame retardant products. This vision is coupled with a commitment to maintain high fire safety standards across the world, standards which minimize the risk of fire to the general public.

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

Members of pinfa share the common vision of continuously improving the environmental and health profile of their flame retardant products and demonstrating their safety. pinfa members strive to

  • Reduce the risk of fire from products, by using flame retardants only where appropriate (technically, economically and environmentally) – giving flame retardants the proper role within the fire safety “toolbox”
  • Minimize environmental and health impacts of fire and smoke, and of PIN flame retardants – provide information and data to demonstrate the safety of flame retardants
  • Enable recycling of flame retardant products and making them fit for the circular economy
  • Collaborate with all relevant stakeholders like regulators, science and industry

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 improvig 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 (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

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