Why Use Flame Retardants

Flame retardants save lives. They play a critical role in making homes, apartments, hospitals, nursing homes, offices, cars and public transportation safer from the life-threatening consequences of fire.

Flame retardants, or ignition resistance materials, help prevent fires from starting and slow the rate of growth of fires that do start. They are widely used in furniture, fabrics, electronics, electrical appliances, and all forms of public transportation. As such, flame retardants allow longer escape times for those in the presence of a fire, as well as longer response times and less advanced fires for firefighters. It is estimated that escape times can be up to 15 times longer when flame retardants are present, providing increased survival chances for those in close proximity.

Despite advances in fire safety, technology and building codes, fires still represent a very serious risk, and the United States has the third highest overall fire death rate of all industrialized countries. The Home Safety Council reports that fires and burns are the third leading cause of home-injury deaths, accounting for an average of 3,400 deaths per year from 1992 - 1999. Of all fire and burn-related injuries, 90 percent of all fatalities and 57 percent of non-fatal injuries occur in the home.

The very young, the elderly, and the economically disadvantaged are at particularly high risk. For example, the risk to children and those over age 65 of dying in a fire is twice the average for a U.S. adult. Individuals who are 85 and older have a risk that is almost 4.5 times the national average.

When flame retardants are not present, as was the case in the tragic 2003 Rhode Island Station nightclub fire in which 100 people died during a fire involving foam insulation that was not flame-retarded, rapid ignition and fire spread can lead to significant loss of life and property. Conversely, when an Air France jet skidded off the runway in Toronto in 2005 and burst into flames, the flame retardant materials used in airplane construction were credited with providing the extended escape time needed for all 309 passengers and crew to escape.

Flame retardants: the silent sentries working to protect us all from the life-threatening and property damaging effects of fires. The reason we use flame retardants is simple yet compelling – we use them to prevent fires, to prevent property damage, and to save the lives of citizens and firefighters.

What Are Flame Retardants?

Flame retardants are specially designed chemicals that serve three principal functions:

• Increasing the ignition temperature of a material;
• Reducing the rate of fire spread to avoid or delay flashover; and,
• Decreasing the rate of burning to result in lower heat release.

Fundamentally, flame retardants, or ignition resistance materials, help prevent fires from starting and slow the rate of growth of fires that do start. Although flame retardants do not make materials "fire proof," they play a critical role in making homes, apartments, hospitals, nursing homes, offices and cars safer from fire. They are widely used in electronics, electrical appliances, furniture, fabrics and all forms of public transportation.

Of critical importance, flame retardants allow longer escape times for those in the presence of a fire, as well as longer response times and less advanced fires for firefighters. It is estimated that escape times can be up to 15 times longer when flame retardants are present, providing increased survival chances for those in close proximity.

Providing additional time to escape from, or respond to, a fire is key – due to the increase presence of electronic and other heat-producing products, which contain a myriad of potential ignition sources – and the fact that many products are made of or contain highly flammable plastics and materials, the time between the start of a fire and flashover is now much shorter than it used to be.