10 Dec Brominated flame retardants are the most effective fire safety system: A Meet the Experts interview with Dr. Jürgen Troitzsch

In this edition of Meet the Experts, Nuno Bacharel, Communications Manager at BSEF, speaks to Dr. Jürgen Troitzsch, a global expert on fire safety standards and author of the worldwide success ‘Plastics Flammability Handbook’.

In this interview, Dr. Troitzsch talks about the exponential increase in the use of plastics in our society and the concurrent decrease in the number of fires as a fascinating puzzle, which fire safety regulations and the use of flame retardants helped solve.

He provided insights into the value of the chemistry behind flame retardants chosen as the go-to chemistry by manufacturers. “Brominated flame retardants are the most efficient flame retardants in the gas phase” compared to other systems operating in the condensed phase and present the big advantage of being available at a reasonable cost.

Dr. Troitzsch also highlighted that potentially harmful BFRs have been taken off the market. The future is focused on polymeric BFRs which are not bio-accumulative and have an excellent eco-toxicological profile.

When asked about challenges and trends for the future of fire safety, Dr. Troitzsch pointed to the recent developments in the field of e-mobility, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G networks. He remarked that flame retardants are expected to play a crucial role to ensure the fire safety of the highly combustible materials in these applications.