All You Need to Know About Common Household Fire Retardants
According to the 2019 report “Center of Fire Statistics” published by the International Association of Fire and Rescue Services or Comité Technique International de prevention et d’extinction de Feu (CTIF), inhabitants of the participating countries reported anywhere between 2.5 and 4.5 million fire incidents each year from 1993 to 2017. Within the same period, reported fire death numbers ranged from 17,000 to as many as 62,000 deaths.
These numbers tell us that fire accidents are commonplace. Some of the most common causes of fire accidents include unattended or overheating cooking equipment, heaters, electrical equipment, candles and faulty wiring.
Most household items are combustible and can contribute to the rapid spread of a fire. To address this problem, flame retardants were introduced in certain consumer goods such as electronics, mattresses, and building materials.
Flame retardants – uses and benefits
A flame retardant works to prevent the ignition of fires and to halt or slow the spread of fire. Certain chemicals or substances found to be effective flame retardants are being added to combustible materials. These include flame retardant plastics in electronics, and foams in sofas, mattresses, carpets and automobile seats.
Flame retardant plastics and foams can delay the fire ignition period and even arrest the burning process. This way, when a fire breaks out in a house, building or vehicle, the occupants are given extra escape time, thereby reducing the chance of fire-related deaths and injuries. Fire crew and emergency medical services also have more time to arrive at the scene of a fire accident.
A wide variety of flame retardants are used in specific products and industries. Flame retardants are generally grouped based on what they contain, for example boron, bromine, chlorine, metals, nitrogen or phosphorous.
Flame retardants are especially useful today when people and businesses depend on a wide variety of electronic equipment. The modern tendency to accumulate large volumes of combustible materials has also increased the potential for fire accidents.
This is why flame retardants are used frequently in the following industries:
- Building and Construction: Flame retardants are used in building insulation materials like mineral wool, cellulose, polystyrene and polyurethane. Other building and construction materials such as glass, gypsum and pearlite boards, brick and concrete are used in homes, offices and public buildings to provide better fire safety protection.
- Textiles and Furnishings: Certain fire retardant materials used in textiles include leather, melamine, flame resistant (FR) cotton, and carbon foam (CFOAM). Specific materials used in the manufacture of furnishings like carpets, foam, curtains, and mattresses are treated with fire retardant substances.
- Electronic and Electrical Devices: There are fire retardant electrical wires and cables used in common household devices and appliances, such as PCs, laptops, telephones and televisions. For electronic circuit boards found in personal electronics, flame retardants are chemically bound to the board during the production process. Plastic casings and electronic connectors also contain fire retardants; however, the chemical compounds used vary depending on the component part.
- Automotive and Transportation: In the automotive and transportation industry, flame retardants are used extensively in engineering thermoplastics functional and structural components. ICL-IP flame retardants are used in polyolefin or styrenic made batteries. Foams comprising rigid polyurethane, cross-linked polyolefins or cross-linked plasticized blends of PVC with nitrile rubber are used to not only make materials fire safe, but to also provide good thermal insulation in vehicles such as trains, airplanes, trucks and marine vessels. Fire retardant plasticized PVC coated fabric is used in manufacturing truck and boat covers.
Health and environmental concerns
Since chemical flame retardants are used in a large number of consumer products, these can accumulate in the human body, as well as in the environment. This has been linked to a number of medical conditions like endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, cancer, immune disorders, and developmental problems in children.
Fire retardants leach into the environment through discarded furniture and other products, finding their way into different bodies of water. These chemicals contaminate the seas and affect the reproductive capacity of marine animals.
However, like all chemicals, flame retardants are subjected to testing and review to assess their potential health and environmental risks and government agencies regulate or prohibit the use of certain fire retardants. In Canada, for example, tetrabenzyl pyrophosphate or TBPP (used for treating polyurethane foam in residential upholstered furniture) cannot be used in the manufacture of clothing, including kids sleep wear.
Tris (2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP), a toxic flame retardant used to treat polyurethane foam used in furniture, carpet backing, some plastics and baby products, is also banned in Canada. This substance has also been found to be a common contaminant in waterways.
Flame retardants are an even bigger concern when it comes to exposure to children, as it has been reported that children have higher blood concentrations of flame retardants compared to adults. The high blood concentrations are the result of children’s behaviours and their tendency to sit or play on the floor. This is particularly concerning since children are still growing, and such exposure can adversely affect the development of their brain and other organs.
Fire retardant substances like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are banned as these do not chemically bind with the products they are added to (e.g. furniture, electronics). This means that PBDEs can easily leach from these products and contaminate the air and surroundings. PBDEs have also been known to lead to lower birthweight in children, as well as impair neurological development.
Flame retardants continue to be studied and assessed for their health and environmental impacts, especially since these can be highly toxic when they start to burn. Of particular note is their effect on firefighters who are at a significantly higher risk of inhaling dangerous fumes when putting out fires.
The need for safer alternatives
Industries in which fire retardants are extensively used are at a crossroads. On one hand, they need to adhere to government regulations pertaining to fire safety, while on the other, they also need to consider the health and safety of users and the impact of their products on the environment.
For example, the mattress industry in Canada is covered by the Hazardous Products Regulations.
Canadian fire safety standards state that all mattresses and futons sold in the country must be able to resist ignition from a burning cigarette. The dilemma, however, is that most mattresses are sourced from petroleum-based materials. Hence, manufacturers have to resort to using fire retardants to treat these potentially combustible materials.
It falls on the manufacturer, therefore, to innovate and find safer such as a wool fire barriers in natural mattresses to reduce the health and environmental risks.
Consumers also need to be vigilant and inquisitive about the products they purchase.
