Well perhaps not 'consumer' electronics... but for industrial machinery (e.g., semiconductor manufacturing equipment used in clean rooms), one of the major insurers sets (via insurance rates) an upper limit on the kg/sqft of materials that are *not*, e.g., FM4910 compliant (which focuses also on particle and smoke generation). If plastics are in the construction, then flame retardants are really the only way to achieve 4910 compliance. I'd bet they have lots of statistics underpinning this position.
Writing the above dropped a penny to the effect of "sure, maybe not reduction of death or injury, but certainly for property damage". -L From: Richard Nute <ri...@bendbroadband.com> Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 3:32 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: [PSES] Do We Need Flame Retardants in Electronics? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-need-flame-retardants-in-electronics/ "...there has never been any valid statistical demonstration that flame retardant chemicals of the types and concentrations used in consumer products have resulted in death or injury reduction," says Vytenis Babrauskas<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-furniture-flame-retardants-save-enough-lives-justify-environmental-damage/>... The article is more than 5 years old. Nevertheless, thought-provoking. Enjoy! Rich - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org<mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org>> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe)<http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html> List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org<mailto:sdoug...@ieee.org>> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org<mailto:mcantw...@ieee.org>> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org<mailto:j.bac...@ieee.org>> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com<mailto:dhe...@gmail.com>> - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
