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Fire Retardants

Volume 195: debated on Tuesday 23 July 1991

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To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the product groups on sale in the EC where there is wide use of Tetrabromobisphenyl A as a fire retardant; and what information he has on which product groups currently using Polybromobiphenyl ethers as a fire retardant would not be suitable for treatment with Terabromobisphenol A.

The exact extent of use of TBBA—terabromobisphenol A—is commercially sensitive information and difficult to obtain. However, I understand that TBBA is used in acrylonitrile-butadiene-stryrene copolymers, polycarbonates and in epoxide and phenolic resins.Detailed information on product groups which are unsuitable for treatment with TBBA is not available. The United Kingdom has stringent fire safety standards which are based on performance criteria not on the use or otherwise of specific fire retardants. Furnishing textiles and other materials treated with polybromobiphenyl ethers meet these standards. It is not known to what extent the same materials treated TBBA would meet these standards.