Over the last several years, there has been increasing awareness and discussion about the use of flame-retardants in building materials.1 Much of this has centered around the use of halogenated flame-retardants (HFRs) in insulations. HFRs are materials which contain halogens, chemical elements in group VII of the periodic table. They are the chemical elements whose names end in “ine,” such as fluorine, chlorine or bromine. Concerns have been raised by some groups about the use of HFRs in a range of products, including furniture, clothing and insulations such as polystyrenes, polyurethanes and polyisocyanurates.
Many articles and publications on this issue use very broad, all-encompassing statements about “plastic foam insulations” and “halogenated flame retardants.”2 It is important to remember, that by having such broad classifications, sweeping claims and statements tend to be made which can be inaccurate and misleading. For example, “plastic foam insulations” incude expanded polystyrene, extruded polystyrene, spray polyurethane foam and polisocyanurate—very different materials, with very different thermal, physical, mechanical and fire properties, and different flame-retardants. Similarly, the category “HFRs” includes materials which are known to have poor environmental performance,3 materials where there is no data and materials where the current data gives them a clean bill of health.4,5 An analogy would be to classify all mineral fiber insulations together, treating glass fibers, rockwool fibers and asbestos fibers in a single category, and claiming that they all cause chronic lung problems. This would not be a true of fair comparison.