The CATALYST_October_2017

Replacing Flourinated Fire-Fighting Foam
By Dr. Jeanne van Burren
Note from Author:
The Catalyst Issue 03/2017 contained two articles on foam, one by
Jan-Erik Jönsson & John-Olav Ottesen and one written by myself.
These two articles complemented each other which is good as many
readers of the Catalyst will be confronted with a globally
implemented restriction of the use of PFOA in fire-fighting foam.
Unfortunately not everyone is aware of the forgiving nature of AFFF
fire fighting foam concentrate. Without the availability of AFFF based
foam concentrate, industry may be confronted with some serious
challenges which they were not aware of. Due to the required
introduction of new foam concentrates, the percentage of foam
concentrate in the premix, application rates, application methods,
application equipment and capacity of containment provisions may
have to be reconsidered in the Management of Change process
which operators have to go through to secure the required
availability and reliability of this last line of defence between a
controlled fire scenario and a major incident.
Introduction
On 13 June 2017 the European Union (EU) published amendment
of Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning the
Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) with regards to the use of
perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts and PFOA-related
substances 1 . PFOA is a performance enhancing component
present in fluorinated fire-fighting foams.
REACH is implemented in EU legislation, but many countries
outside the EU have similar legislation which, in some states and
countries, can be stricter or less strict than the EU legislation.
The articles in this amendment which are relevant for firefighting
foam state:
Article1:
[PFOA and its salts] Shall not be manufactured, or placed on the
market as substances on their own from 4 July 2020.
Article 2:
Shall not, from 4 July 2020, be used in the production of, or
placed on the market in:
(a) another substance, as a constituent;
(b) a mixture;
(c) an article, in a concentration equal to or above 25 ppb
of PFOA including its salts or 1000 ppb of one or a
combination of PFOA-related substances.
Article 4:
Point 1 and 2 shall not apply to any of the following:
(e) concentrated fire-fighting foam mixtures that were
placed on the market before 4 July 2020 and are to be used,
or are used in the production of other fire-fighting foam
mixtures
Article 5:
Point 2(b) shall not apply to fire-fighting foam mixtures which were:
(a) placed on the market before 4 July 2020; or
(b) produced in accordance with point 4(e), provided that,
where they are used for training purposes, emissions to the
environment are minimised and effluents collected are safely
disposed of.
POFA Molecule
Similar text was used when the Globally Harmonised System
(GHS) and the system of Classification, Labelling and Packaging
(CLP) of chemical substances and mixtures became mandatory.
The text “placed on the market” resulted in long discussions and
court cases, but in the end companies had to comply with the
requirements of this legislation.
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