Older foams had some very persistant fluorosurfactants, that even when released in small quantities, unfortunately bioaccumulate in species and biomagnify up the food chain where carcinogenic and teratogenic effects present not just at the top of the pyramid (polar bears, seals, etc.) but on lower tier species as well. I am sure there are still plenty of these fluorosurfactant inventory in foams around the world.
Foam floats on water. Water flows downhill, and while from there, much of our swill will accumulates in the main ocean gyres, enough is shedding off these currents to be measurable as deformation in arctic species bears and seals. It is realized that Equador is the first country in the world to enact legislation whereby one can sue the responsible parties who pollute, with the case brought to court with the insulted rivers, streams and lakes named as defendants. So, although you have a progressive, responsible system in place, I am willing to bet some foam users will be looking for ways around the expensive and intensive incineration and other remediation options. In the least, a stopgap solution is recommended for building a retention pond with wind berms to allow the sun to evaporate what it can and the ground to soak up most of the foam product. The particular fluorosurfactants that are the bad actors have extremely low degradation even after 40 years, but at least the bermed "cancer zone " will be limited to the soil plume below this retention area, rather than sharing these chemicals through all our oceans. scot deal excelsior fire engieering _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
