The (North American) International Code Council, meeting in August in Albuquerque, rejected a proposal to allow non flame retarded polystyrene foam in foundations, where it is underneath a concrete slab of at least 3 ½ inches. The proposal was supported by 19 persons or organisations including NGOs (including Arlene Blum’s “Green Science Policy Institute”), individuals (inc. V. Babrauskas), architects’ (inc. African Institute of Architects) and firefighters’ organisations. The proposal is essentially the same as that adopted in January 2019 by California (see pinfa Newsletter n° 100). Despite this, the ICC committee rejected the proposal by 10 votes to 1. It will however be discussed again in Las Vegas, October 23-30. According to Bloomberg Business week, the discussion was largely about whether today’s flame retardants (in particular polymeric FRs) pose health risks to building occupants.
Bloomberg Business Week 30th August 2019 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-28/arlene-blum-s-never-ending-battleagainst-bromine
Details of proposal RB131-19 and list of proposing organisations (see pages 177 onds.) https://cdn-web.iccsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-ICC-PUBLIC-COMMENT-AGENDA-compressed-2019-upload-upload.pdf or here https://www.iccsafe.org/products-and-services/i-codes/code-development-process/2019-group-b / then “Group B Public Comment Agenda”