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IPC Symposium on Electronics and the Environment: It's Not Easy Being Green, July 16-17, 2008, Boston (Cambridge), USA Under the heading "It's not easy going green", the symposium attracted speakers from OEMs, associations, consultancy and service organizations, polymer and flame retardants producers, test houses, US EPA, academia, and last not least, about 180 attendees. The main topics on the agenda were new regulations, requirements, and eco-conscious electronics design for environment and green chemistry. The focus was on the promotion of halogenfree products and the elimination of brominated flame retardants and PVC. The first day's presentations started with industry programs on green electronics, followed by an overview on worldwide restrictions on hazardous substances, climate change and energy conservation, US recycling regulations, and REACH. A block covering eco-conscious electronics design and green chemistry started with a presentation on the "GreenScreen" approach to evaluating alternative chemicals and explained a study on the environmental impact of decabromodiphenyl ether vs. resorcinol bis diphenyl phosphate (RDP) and bisphenol A bis diphenyl phosphate (BDP). After a paper on ecolabels, a supply chain panel discussion on "how green is impacting your business" with participants from Sun Microsystems, TTM Technologies and Benchmark Electronics followed. The panel discussion highlighted the need for suppliers to document, test and communicate their use of chemical substances. Currently, there is no globally accepted system for managing all this information in place. The second day focused on halogen free update with presentations and panel discussions specific to halogen free products and flame retardants. Starting by an overview of the current situation on regulations, risk assessments, etc., regarding brominated flame retardants, an OEM panel discussion on roadmaps (Sony, Apple, and Lenovo) took place. The statements were quite different and ranged between the wish to provide products which make customers feel better, the exemption of reactive tetrabromobisphenol A from the halogen free commitment, and a ban of halogens Cl and Br defined by total concentration < 900 ppm each, and < 1500 ppm in total. Presentations on ongoing projects for halogenfree electronics followed:
The symposium showed the strong interest in halogenfree concepts for electronics in the USA and gave a good overview of the work achieved so far. back to top>>> Conference Report: Flame Retardants 2008 in London The Flame Retardants Conference FR 2008 took place in London, UK, on 12th and 13th February 2008. It addressed new developments in the fields fire regulations and tests, innovations in flame retardants (FRs), and started with the main environmental topic for all chemicals: REACh. The opening paper on FRs and REACh explained the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals, its timeline, the involvement of flame retardants in this new regulation, the experience from the past (risk assessments), and how the FR producers are preparing for this regulation. In this context, another paper specifically dealt with antimony trioxide. Regulatory developments regarding fire safety and testing were the next topic. In the USA, strict requirements for the flammability of mattresses have been issued, whereas for upholstered furniture there is a trend to only demand resistance to a glowing cigarette. Further papers dealt with developments in European textile regulations and standards, European reaction to fire standards for construction products and related opportunities for material suppliers, and last not least the new European classification and fire testing systems for cables and their impact on the use of cables in building. The next section focused on fires and fire statistics with papers on city fires in Japan, a study on high risk items in private home fires (mattresses, furniture, TV sets), the new fire safety requirements for TV sets against external ignition sources like candles, and a study showing the high fire risk of household appliances not sufficiently protected against these external ignition sources. New flame retardant systems and their use in polymers were the next topic, which started with additive and reactive phosphorus flame retardants in epoxy resins for printing wiring board applications, followed by papers on the flame retardancy mechanisms of metal phosphinates in glass-fibre reinforced polyesters, on new applications of these phosphinates in engineering plastics for electronics, on intumescent systems based on ammonium polyphosphate, and on other inorganic phosphorus compounds both for use in polypropylene. An interesting paper explained the anti-drip mechanism of specific PTFEs as melt modifiers in thermoplastics. Some more academic papers described FTIR investigations of nanocomposites in polyamides, the effect of carbon nanofiber network on the flammability of flexible polyurethane foam, and more reality oriented, the rather poor role of nanocomposites in PVC cables. The conference
gave an excellent depiction of the status and developments of fire
safety regulations, testing, and the use of flame retardants and
plastics. Electronics Manufacturers get serious about halogen free - a report from the INTEL-IPC-Symposium on 15 + 16 January 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona In mid January, INTEL corporation organized a "halogen free symposium" together with the electronics organisation IPC in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. By halogen free they meant replacement materials for halogenated (mostly brominated) flame retardants as well as PVC. The seminar was fully booked with 250 attendees, many more applicants had to be turned away. To the surprise of many in the audience, the major electronics manufacturers present, Hewlett-Packard, DELL, Apple and Lenovo (the former PC-branch of IBM) as well as the leading chip and component manufacturer INTEL made announcements to no longer allow brominated flame retardants or PVC in new products by the end of 2009. Therefore, there was not really a discussion about whether this approach was sensible (and affordable), but the focus was only on how to manage the change. Of course, the question of how the extra cost for alternative solutions will be borne was raised time and again, particularly by suppliers. The OEMs replied that even though there is price premium on the component level (e.g. currently for printed circuit boards + 20%, for connectors + 30%), on the level of the finished article this means only a marginal increase. Furthermore, if all OEMs go halogen free at the same time, economies of scale for halogen free materials can be realized. The same happened with the transition to lead free components, when all suppliers substituted most of their inventory to lead free. Another important
finding was that particularly for printed circuit boards there can
be technical advantages for halogen free systems, because they can
have better electrical properties than the traditional brominated
ones. This is of interest for high-end applications. No fundamental
reliability issues were found in the appropriate tests that were
carried out. Further
Information >>> Conference on „Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants“ in Würzburg, Germany The 9th Conference on „Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants“ took place on December 5th and 6th, 2007 in Würzburg, Germany, at the „Süddeutsches Kunststoff-Zentrum“ SKZ and had around 60 participants. The conference language was German. The first part Fire Regulations and Tests started with electrical engineering & electronics (E&E) including approval, testing and new external fire source requirements for consumer and office electronics. Two papers followed on the fire behaviour of construction products and particularly of pipe insulating systems in the European Union and Germany. The progress achieved in European standardisation for the fire protection of rail vehicles as well as for the introduction of toxicity requirements in Germany was discussed. New fuselage structures (composites instead of aluminium) for aircraft and fire-testing in the new American burn-through test are trend-setting developments discussed in the last presentation. The topic Flame Retardants, Markets and Applications first dealt with comments on the K2007 plastics fair, the growing influence of the Chinese in the flame retardants market, and the rather scarce innovations of flame retardants. Further presentations in this field dealt with developments for halogen free systems in polyamides and linear polyesters using phosphinates, particularly for appliances, flame retarded thermosets, improved extrusion with nano particles, and the cone calorimeter as a tool for developing flame retarded polymers. The paper on “REACH registration of flame retardants - burden or chance?” showed the timeline and the ways to register these chemicals. Aspects of the environmental impact of flame retardants as seen by the German environmental protection agency UBA and ongoing research activities completed the topic Environment. The paper “how well does my hi-fi unit burn?“ presented a study of the European Flame Retardant Association EFRA and showed how easily electrical devices in our home may catch fire when exposed to small external ignition sources. A burning micro
stereo system, 5 minutes after ignition with a small flame (the
size of a tea light candle).
A short video
on car fires in the USA showed that the fire safety regulations
of 1972 do no more fulfil the requirements for modern cars and that
higher fire safety levels for the materials are imperative. International Symposium on Flame Retardants and Fire Safety (San Francisco) After the first Symposium in Beijing, China, in November 2006, the Second International Symposium on Flame Retardants and Fire Safety, organised by the American Fire Safety Council AFSC, took place on October 7-10, 2007 in San Francisco, USA. The topics covered were fire safety, innovations in flame retardant technology, and regulatory & environmental initiatives with speakers from the USA, Europe, and Asia (China and Korea). It gave an excellent overview on the latest developments in these fields. The first session on fire safety started with new European trends for fire safety in building, transportation (motor vehicles, ships, rail), and electrical & electronic (E&E) equipment. It was followed by papers focussing on fire safety in the USA; particularly on the California home furnishings regulations and standards, automobile fire safety, and recent activities in US codes. The second session on innovations in flame retardant (FR) technology started with new developments in halogenfree FR systems (silicones in PC/ABS, aluminium hydroxide coupling agents), followed by new phosphorus-based flame retardants (engineering plastics, electronic applications), research on nanocomposites, and sustainable brominated FRs (electronic applications, flexible polyurethane foam). Finally, the third session on regulatory & environmental initiatives dealt with new developments in Europe, Japan, and the USA: FRs and REACH (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals), Japanese perspective of environmentally friendly FRs, USA activities on FRs in printed circuit boards, on California's legislative and regulatory activities, and on VECAP, the voluntary emissions control action programme established by the brominated flame retardant industry. One highlight of the conference was a keynote talk by Dr. Patrick Moore, former Director of Greenpeace International, about the importance of fire safety and how it fits into the larger sustainability picture. Towards the end of the conference, a small group of environmental activists (together with press people) "stormed" the meeting and fervently demanded the adoption of the Californian proposed legislation on a ban of halogenated flame retardants. The proposal was turned down by a small majority in the meantime. The message from the symposium was that fire safety deficiencies are increasingly perceived (car and bus fires, external ignition sources in E&E), and that more stringent fire safety requirements are on their way in building (China for external insulation), transportation (high speed trains, ships & high speed craft), and home furnishings (USA mattresses). Innovations in flame retardants are scarce and focussed on halogen-free systems. Environmental initiatives have originated in Europe (risk assessments, REACH, VECAP) and are increasingly taken over by the USA and Asia. For further
information click here
>> The 11th European Conference on Fire Retardant Polymers (FRPM07), 4 to 7 July 2007, took place in Bolton, UK, and was very well attended by about 230 participants. The different topics were dealt with in 9 plenary and 10 keynote lectures, 18 presentations, 22 panel presentations, and 48 posters from academics and industry, covering the assessment of fire performance, new fire retardant mechanisms and systems, composites, textiles, coating and lamination, environmental, health and safety, as well as testing, and regulations. The conference gave an excellent overview on the status and perspectives of all aspects of fire safety and flame retardant (FR) polymers. The section assessment of fire performance covered the challenge of interpreting material flammability tests, mechanisms of fire retardancy, cone calorimetry, nanocomposites, intumescence, and new developments in fire safety of aircraft. Panel presentations on nanoscience and synergy closed this session. The papers in the new fire retardant mechanisms and systems sessions dealt with migration of nanocomposites and flame retardancy in polymers, analytical methodologies, trends in commercial and halogenfree flame retardants (FR), and the fire behaviour of composites. The session ended with panel presentations on fire retardant systems. Textiles, coatings
and lamination were referred to in presentations on flammability
and new textile regulations, intumescent paints, textile flame retardants,
and biodegradable polymers. Here again, panel presentations on these
topics closed the session. On 3 July 2007, the day before the conference, in a workshop on predicting the fire behaviour of nanocomposites, fire retardant chemists and fire modellers presented the results available so far from the major European project Predfire Nano. The presentations dealt with the effect of nanofillers and FRs on nylon 6, polybutylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and ethylene-vinyl acetate, and showed that predictions into bench scale fire tests like the cone calorimeter may be possible from the intrinsic properties of these polymers found and determined by analytical methodologies. The relevance of these results using the intrinsic polymer properties for modelling cone calorimeter behaviour and ongoing work on the prediction of large scale behaviour were presented in several papers and concluded this very interesting workshop. For further
information klick here: www.frpm07.com
The Flame Retardants Conference FR 2006 took place in London, UK, on 14th and 15th February 2006 and was attended by over 200 people. The conference started with a session on flame retardants and environmental aspects including papers on the sustainability of flame retardants (Chemtura, UK), an update on REACH (UK Department for Environment), on the feasibility of halogen free textile backcoating formulations (University of Bolton, UK), the environmental profile of new phosphorous-based flame retardants (Umsicht and Clariant, Germany), and a paper on the WEEE recovery at an integrated metals smelter (EFRA/Umicore). The papers gave a good overview on the latest developments in this field and showed that the various flame retardants systems presented do not basically harm the environment. A discussion forum focussing on the toxicity and acidity of fire gases from wire and cable followed with papers given in the context of the proposed acidity criterion for cables used as construction products. Papers dealing with the toxicity measurement of gases from cables (LSF, Italy), the correlation between fire safety, smoke toxicity and acidity (GBH, USA), smoke toxicity from FR plastics combustion products (INERIS, France), the acidity criterion for cables under the CPD (Fire Protection Service, Germany), and halogen free polyethylene cables behaviour (Chalmers Univ., Sweden) were given. In the discussion, it came out that acidity cannot be equated to the toxicity of fire effluents from cables. In the following session, papers covering some basics regarding the ignition of solids, reaction-to-fire testing in the world, thermal analysis of flammability, and developments in the Japanese fire safety regulations in different fields were presented. They gave a good view on past, current and future research work on ignition, flammability, reaction-to-fire testing, and related regulations. Session 4 covered different flame retardant systems and their mechanisms including nanocomposites for cable applications, polymeric flame retardants, synergists based on zinc borate, the mechanisms of phosphorous flame retardants, and specific phosphorous flame retardants (DOPO) in polyamides. The two latter presentations showed interesting mechanistical aspects and new applications in polymers. A short commercial section followed with presentations on analytical test protocols for the RoHS directive, a new microcalorimetry measuring device, halogen free UL 94 V1 products for TV housings, and intumescent flame retardant systems. In the following session, papers on modelling fire scenarios, regulations and standardisation for US and French residential furnishings, as well as the benefits of counter-measures in the UK and Europe to increase fire safety were presented. They showed that worldwide the regulations become more severe and also that using flame retardants and smoke detectors will help to reduce the number of fire victims and losses. The final session covered EU fire safety requirements and testing of construction products, particularly sandwich panels, and the use of the Single Burning Item (SBI) test. The papers showed that there are basically solutions for testing construction products and the use of the SBI test, but that there are still many problems to be solved. The conference gave an excellent picture of the status of fire safety regulations, testing, and the use of flame retardants and plastics. back to top>>> Training Session on new trends in standardisation and regulation in the fields of transportation in Tampere, Finland In the frame of the 6th European Union Framework Programme for Research and Development, Flexifunbar is an Integrated Project dedicated to small- and medium-sized companies. The consortium is composed of 50 partners from several traditional industrial sectors: textile, leather and paper. The objective of Flexifunbar is to promote and develop new innovative multi-functional flexible structures to examine the feasibility of making materials for use in many multisectorial industrial applications (health, building construction, transportation). You can find more details at http://www.flexifunbar.org On April 10th, 2006 the management committee of the project organized a training session devoted to the new trends in standardisation and regulation in the fields of transportation (automotive, trains, aircraft…), with particular emphasis on fire related topics. Around 30 participants attended the training session which provided opportunities for academic and industrial scientists to meet the Flexifunbar consortium and to exchange views and network in the field of regulation and standardisation. The presentations related to fire safety gave a good overview of developments and trends in the harmonisation of railways in Europe, US fire tests for automotive, flame retardants legislation and regulations for flame retardants in Europe, and requirements for aircraft materials. The titles and the speakers were: Fire safety
regulations, harmonisation and standardisation of rolling stock
in Europe Report from the Conference on "Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants" The 8th Conference on "Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants" took place on July 21st and 22nd, 2006 in Würzburg, Germany, at the "Süddeutsches Kunststoff-Zentrum" SKZ (South German Polymer Centre) and had around 80 participants. The conference language was German. The first section Fire Regulations and Testing dealt with new developments in building and rail vehicles as well as with approvals in the E&E sector. The reaction to fire of construction products in the context of the Construction Products Directive (CPD) and the repercussions on national level, fire protection and tests for rail vehicles in Europe and Germany (planned toxicity requirements), and the UL certification system for the fire safety of E&E plastics, components and devices were discussed in depth. The second section Flame Retardants, Applications and Environmental Aspects started with the mechanisms driving the phosphorous flame retardants mode of action in polymers and resulting opportunities for product development. Several papers covering selection criteria for flame retardants, intumescent systems for polyolefins, the role of nanocomposites for fire safety, flame retarded compounds and masterbatches, and the processing of flame retarded resin systems in the RTP-process. Particular attention was attached to the fire safety of printed circuit boards and linear polyesters (PBT) containing various phosphorous flame retardants meeting the UL 94 V0 requirements like their brominated counterparts. The computer modelling of home fires considering the use of smoke alarms and flame retardants was an extremely interesting topic showing the benefits of such systems for increased fire safety. Finally, the still controversially discussed topic of the compatibility of flame retardants and environmental aspects was dealt with. The main points presented were the EU Risk Assessments for flame retardants, the chemicals regulation proposal REACH, the European directives for E&E waste (WEEE and RoHS), the position of E&E equipment manufacturers (OEM) as well as the current status of ecolabels, green procurement, and consumer magazines. The conference
book with all presentations is available via http://www.skz.de
under Kontakt (in German). International Electronics Conference Confirms Trend towards Halogen free Flame Retardants At the international
Electronics Goes Green 2004+ conference in Berlin from 6 - 8 September
2004 more than 500 experts from the electronics industry and their
suppliers as well as academia and environmental research institutes
gathered. Design for environment (DfE), life cycle analysis (LCA),
end of life and recycling issues were discussed in great detail.
As Kei Biu Chan, chairman of the Hongkong Electronics Industries
Association, pointed out in his speech, "Green Manufacturing
is not necessarily a drain on profits but an opportunity for cost
savings, lean production and technology advancement. With Green
Manufacturing, an enterprise can differentiate itself from other
competitors and establish market leadership." Flame retardants
were also a topic of interest, especially because of the entry into
force of the European directives on waste of electric and electronic
(E&E) equipment (WEEE, 2002/96/EC) and restriction of certain
hazardous substances (RoHS, 2002/95/EC) in such equipment. These
Directives affect some brominated flame retardants. At the conference,
four papers were presented on flame retardants topics, covering
new halogen free developments, end-of-life options for flame retarded
plastics and a comparison of brominated versus halogen fee printed
wiring boards from a life cycle perspective. This last paper has
been promoted by bromine manufacturers as an argument in favour
of bromine, however, the paper merely comes to the conclusion that
in terms of manufacturing there is a higher energy consumption for
drilling of the non-halogenated wiring boards whereas all other
effects are almost identical. The study has a number of limitations
which the authors truly indicate, e.g. environmental and toxicological
effects like bioaccumulation were not covered at all. 10th Conference on "Fire Retardancy and Protection of Materials" The 10th Conference on "Fire Retardancy and Protection of Materials" took place in Berlin, Germany, at the "Federal Materials Research and Testing Establishment" BAM, September 7th to 9th, 2005, and hosted more than 200 attendants. This conference is the most important forum in Europe covering the state of the art and new developments in the field of flame retardancy, and is particularly devoted to basic and applied fire science as well as to the exchange between scientists from industry and academia. After an introduction to fundamental aspects of fire behaviour and fire retardancy, phosphorous compounds used for the fire retardancy of polymers were presented with papers focussing on intumescent systems, red phosphorus in thermoplastics, and various reactive phosphorus compounds for substituting tetrabromobisphenol A based systems used in epoxy resins. The section industrial applications, regulations and standardisation started with a paper on full-scale fire testing of consumer products illustrating the consequences of too low fire safety levels, followed by presentations on new phosphorus compounds used for epoxy laminates and on metal phosphinates used in polyamides with excellent properties regarding fire safety levels and electrical properties like the comparative tracking index (CTI). Further papers dealt with the EU harmonisation of fire testing and classification of products used in construction, railways and electrical applications; the relevance of the Single Burning Item test results for the fire safety of construction products, the benefits of smoke detectors and flame retardants in residential buildings, and with improved fire safety of specific foams and wood products. Papers on textiles covered the possibilities of substituting halogenated flame retardant systems, halogen free textile coating systems, as well as flame retardant textiles and recent advances in this field. The new materials and new methods section started with a paper on flammability characterisation for predicting large-scale fire test performance. Further presentations focussed on nanocomposites and flame retardant fillers in intumescent formulations, on the performance of intumescent coatings, on the optimization of the glow wire test by optical methods for developing new halogen free products, and on the development of anti-drip formulations. CO, smoke and the environment is an important topic concerning the use of polymers and flame retardants. The bench-scale assessment of fire toxicity in the "Purser" tube led to lively discussions about its relevance to predict the toxicity of fire gases in real fires, particularly from halogen-containing and halogen free cable systems. Another topic was the inclusion of fires into life-cycle assessments (Fire-LCA Model) taking upholstered furniture as an example. Presentations on nanocomposites gave a comprehensive overview on general flame retardancy mechanisms as well as on thermoplastics and thermosets, kinetics, combustion properties and on nanocomposite and flame retardant systems. back to top>>> The 10th International Fire Science & Engineering Conference Interflam ...took place
in Edinburgh, UK, 5th to 7th July 2004 and was attended by around
320 participants. Another paper (B. Sette, Ghent University, Belgium) reported on the the 2nd Single Burning Item SBI round robin test (calibration problems); The SBI is one of the main tests for classifying building products in the EU. In the risk
session (G. Marlair, Ineris, France, M. Simonson, SP, Sweden, and
R. Gann, NIST, USA) presented environmental concerns of fires and
related studies (Fire Life Cycle Analysis LCA, fire gases including
dioxins, polybrominated diphenylethers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)
with the conclusion that flame retardants do basically not harm
the environment. In the session
on small-scale testing, the new Japanese building regulations and
test methods, a study on the fire performance of personal computers
and fire hazard in a home and a small office, a paper on the environmental
effect
of furniture (P. Andersson, SP, Sweden, Fire LCA for two sofas flame
retarded with brominated flame retardants and with TCPP/Melamine
vs. a sofa without flame retardants), and a model for the scenario-related
assessment of the smoke toxic potency were presented. The presentations
on bench-scale and reaction-to-fire testing showed that the preferred
tool for research is still the cone calorimeter. The toxic potency
of fire effluents testing and FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed)
measurement are growing in importance, and that, contrary to the
past, flame retardants are no more seen as a major concern to the
environment. The 11th Flame Retardants Conference FR 2004 The 11th Flame
Retardants Conference FR 2004 took place in London, UK, on 27th
and 28th January 2004 and was attended by 230 participants. The outcome of the papers was that the EU risk assessments are a scientific tool to find out whether risk reduction measures for single flame retardants are necessary or not. Life cycle analysis of flame retardants, used e.g. in furniture, has shown that overall FRs are beneficial to the environment. Emissions of flame retardants from consumer products were found to be negligible. All in all, facts and not emotions dominate today's arguments and flame retardants improve fire safety without being a threat to the environment. Twentyone papers followed, covering environmental regulations and aspects, flame retardants and FR plastics, textiles, wood, wire & cable, fire testing, classification and regulatory aspects in building, transportation (cars, trains, ships and airplanes), electrical engineering and furnishings. The implementation of European directives for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and construction products (CPD) will influence the use of flame retardants in the future. According to the WEEE directive, waste containing brominated FRs will have to be separated. Some of the fire tests prescribed in the CPD and the new classification system are completely different from the national ones. This will lead to new classifications and formulations for FR products. Some of the existing FR products will no longer meet the new requirements. New developments in flame retardants were presented in papers covering nanocomposites (synthetic and natural nanoclays in plastics and fibres), phosphorous FRs (phosphinates in polyamides, red P in polyolefins, melamine polyphosphate in polybutylene terephthalate), brominated FRs (PU foams), intumescent systems (polyolefins), and inorganic FRs (aluminium trihydrate, Boehmite, talc). Other papers
dealt with new halogenfree high impact polystyrene FR grades for
TV-casings and the optimal compounding of FR materials for extrusion
in the wire & cable industry. The 7th Conference on "Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants" The 7th Conference on "Plastics, Fire Safety, and Flame Retardants" took place on 1 and 2 December 2004 in Würzburg, Germany, at the "Süddeutsches Kunststoff-Zentrum" SKZ and had around 100 participants. The conference was held in German. The first section dealt with the status and new developments in Fire Regulations and Testing. The impact of the European Construction Products Directive on the future fire safety requirements and applications of plastics in building was discussed in some detail. The next paper covered the national regulations and the upcoming European harmonisation in the field of fire protection of rolling stock. A comprehensive overview of the current and future fire safety requirements of electrical and electronic (E&E) equipment in the USA (UL), Europe (CE) and China (CCC) as seen by the plastics producing industry completed the first part of this conference. The second section covered New Developments in Flame Retardants and Related Applications. It started with a paper on the mechanisms driving the flame retardants mode of action in polymers and opportunities for optimising fire safety based on these findings. The following presentation focused on flame retardant markets and trends, emphasizing the strong shift to Asia, and particularly to China. This is also true for phosphorous-containing flame retardants, which were comprehensively discussed with regard to their markets, applications and perspectives. Papers dealing with the mode of action and opportunities for nanocomposites, which in the meantime are commercially used in specific cabling applications, and new developments in metal hydrates based on aluminium und magnesium closed the part on flame retardants. Several papers discussed the reaction to fire of specific flame retarded plastics and applications. The progress in the field of flexible polyurethane foams, elastomeric insulating foams for pipe insulation as well as the flame retardancy and treatment of textile fabrics were covered in some detail. Environmental Aspects related to flame retardants were the topic of the last section of this conference. In the first of two papers, the emission of flame retardants from building products and E&E equipment as well as their presence in indoor environments (air and dust) were examined, and it was shown that emissions lie far below the guidance limit values. The last presentation covered flame retardants, health and the environment, and discussed concerns against using flame retardants, their negative as well as positive impact on the environment, life-cycle and risk assessments as well as European directives (WEEE and RoHS directives for E&E waste). The conference gave an excellent picture of the current status and future developments in the complex field of fire safety and flame retardants. Further details of the conference programme can be found here (in German).
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