Thomas A. Cortina: Reducing the Environmental Impact of Fire Fighting Foams - Changes in Foam Formulations in Response to the EPA PFOA Global Stewardship Program

Published: 10 November, 2009

Fire fighting foams that contain fluorosurfactants are the most effective agents currently available to fight flammable liquid fires in military, industrial, and municipal settings. This fact has been consistently proven in fire tests done over the last 30 years and in tests being performed today. The fluorosurfactants are key ingredients that provide the required low surface tension and positive spreading coefficient that enables the formation of an aqueous film on top of lighter fuels. It is this film formation capability that gives fluorosurfactantcontaining foams their effectiveness against flammable liquid fires. Modern fire fighting foams contain telomer-based fluorosurfactants.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a global stewardship program where manufacturers have voluntarily agreed to reduce and work to eliminate certain fluorochemicals with eight carbons (C8) or more such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Members of FFFC that make telomer-based fluorosurfactants and AFFF agents are in position to meet the goals of the global stewardship program before the 2015 target date with a new family of C6-based fluorosurfactants that provide the same fire protection characteristics with reduced environmental impacts. Incorporating these new fluorosurfactants will require some reformulation and likely some type of re-approval of most current AFFF, FFFP, and fluoroprotein foam products between 2010 and 2015.

About the speaker

Thomas A. Cortina is a partner in government relations firm of Alcalde & Fay and has over 20 years experience as an association manager and government relations consultant. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Fire Fighting Foam Coalition, an industry association that represents AFFF industry interests on all issues related to the environmental acceptability of fire fighting foams.

He also serves as Executive Director of the Halon Alternatives Research Corporation, an industry coalition focused on the regulation of ozone-depleting compounds and the development of alternative technologies. In these roles, he works to coordinate the participation of the fire protection industry in the development of international and U.S. government policies on the regulation of fire protection agents.

He has represented industry positions on precedent-setting environmental regulations related to clean air, safe drinking water, occupational safety and the testing of toxic substances. He also has extensive experience with federal agency policies on risk assessment and risk management. His past experience includes six years as Director of Administration for the Halogenated Solvent Industry Alliance and eight years in toxicology research and related testing. He holds a B.S. in Biology from George Mason University in Virginia.

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