What’s in foam?

The specialist group of extinguishing agent manufacturers in the bvfa – Bundesverband Technischer Brandschutz e.V. (Federal Association for Technical Fire Protection) has published the new leaflet “Was ist drin im Schaum – Bestimmung von PFAS in Schaumlöschmitteln” (What’s in the foam – determination of PFAS in foam extinguishing agents). The generally understandable leaflet summarises procedures and limits for the determination of individual organic fluorine compounds as well as the total fluorine content

The background to this are existing and planned EU restrictions on per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS). The low limit values in existing and planned EU restrictions on the use of PFAS pose major challenges for the determination of organic fluorine compounds in foam extinguishing agents. For example, the planned EU-wide ban on all PFAS compounds contains only one limit value for the entire PFAS substance group, which comprises several thousand substances. In the absence of technical guidelines from the EU, it is so far unclear how compliance with the limit value can be concluded with the existing analytical procedures for individual fluorine compounds and the total fluorine content.