T h e H a l o n H e r a l d
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| From the Editor's Desk |
Hi readers, this has been a busy month with lots of news to report. In this issue of the Halon Herald, you'll find a lot, and I mean a lot, of information including the highly anticipated results to Wesco's Clean Agent Poll located within John's column, BP's efforts to keep at least some of their environmental impact a positive one, the TEAP report on HCFC alternatives, a press release from PAFED, pictures from NAFED St.Louis and get to meet one of our employees along with much more. Don't forget to take a look at our 'Have You Seen?" section and watch the assembly videos of the Boeing 737 and the new Airbus A380. We'll see you next month, Enjoy!
-L.Hayes
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| The Air Up There:
And The Winner Is...
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Last month we polled our readers in a special e-blast and asked the question: Five years from now which "clean" fire suppression agent do you think will dominate the market?" There were three options- FM200 by DuPont, Novec 1230 by 3M and "other".
This was not a scientific poll and we don't think that the results are a serious indication of where the market will be in five years. The current interaction between business, politics and science pretty much assures that even the most sophisticated crystal ball will be hard pressed to predict who will win the battle for market share. Nevertheless, we were curious, since our business is entrenched in the fire protection market as is the business of our supplier and customer base.
Before we get to the results, we thought we'd share a few comments that we received. Read more...
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| Industry News:
BP Monitors & Works to Reduce ODS Emissions
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 In a press release, BP talks about their company efforts to help reduce the use and emissions of substances that can destroy the ozone layer
"We restrict the use of halons to critical safety applications, including fire suppression and fire protection for computer or data processing rooms. The largest systems in use provide protection for oil and gas processing modules. Over several years we have removed many non-critical halon systems, replacing them with advanced fire detection systems or ODS alternatives. Where there are currently no safer alternatives to halon-based systems, it is BP's normal practice to put procedures in place to prevent unnecessary releases." Read more...
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| HTOC Reports on New Alternative Agents, Continued Production of Halon 1301 and More.
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 The Halons Technical Options Committee (HTOC) met in Montpelier, France on March 9-11th,2010. HTOC members in attendance were from Article 5 countries India, Jordan, Kuwait, South Africa, and Venezuela, from CEIT, Russian Federation, as well as from the non-Article 5 countries Canada, Japan, United States, and three member states of the European Union. The following is the update for 2010: Read more...
The May 2010 Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) reports are an assessment of HCFC's and alternatives. Halon's unique combination of properties led to their selection for many specialty hazard fire protection stations..In replacing halons, about 50% of the applications were able to use non-gaseous alternatives such as water, dry chemicals and foams. The remaining 50% of former halon applications use gaseous agents that offer the advantage of also being clean. Read more...
If you would like to read the complete TEAP reports, please click here.
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| United 757 Cockpit Fire Extinguished with Halon
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 A Los Angeles bound Boeing 757 that took off from New York JFK airport diverted to Dulles International airport on the evening of 16 May after experiencing a cockpit fire in cruise at 36,000ft early in the flight. Pilots of the United Flight 27, with 105 passengers and seven crew, noted the faint smell of smoke before hearing a "sizzle" and seeing flames coming for a phenolic blog that holds wires that carry power to the windshield heaters. After donning oxygen masks, the crew extinguished the fire with a halon fire extinguisher, declared an emergency, and diverted to Dulles. Despite the disruption, the pilots landed the aircraft without incident as fire and rescue crews looked on. Read more...
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| Association Highlights:
Final NAFED Sectional Conference of 2010
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 NAFED's Sectional Conference in St.Louis, MO took place at The Millennium Hotel on May 6th-7th. As you know, NAFED invited John Demeter to speak at all three of their conferences. His final presentation at the last sectional conference of 2010, The Future of Clean Agent Fire Suppression, can be found here. John's presentation went great and everyone had a great time!
Happy 3rd year wedding anniversary to Blake and Kelly Angle! Blake, with M Jack's Fire and Safety, also happened to be the winner of the Wesco ITouch raffle. Congrats! To see pictures from the show, click here.
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PAFED Hosts Newly Formatted Spring Conference
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 For nearly 20 years, PAFED has regularly held a spring and fall conference in geographically diverse locations across the Keystone State. In past years these conferences have included a myriad of technical and business presentations, exhibiting vendors and suppliers and no shortage of social events.
However, for 2010 the PAFED membership expressed a desire for something different, something more focused on the needs, challenges, and opportunities presented to fire equipment distributors in the current economy. To address those requests PAFED decided to theme the spring conference with business topics while the fall conferences remains a mix of both technical and business sessions. Read More...
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| Announcements:
HARC Breaks Down the Senate Climate Bill
|  As expected the bill contains basically the same HFC provisions as the House and Senate bills from last year. the only significant change is that the HFC phase down begins one year later in 2013 instead of 2012, the the phase down levels are the same. Also attached is a discussion draft of the Senate climate bill entitled the "American Power Act" that was released recently. Also attached are a short summary and a section-by-section summary. It is expected that discussions will take place over the next month on how to package the climate provisions with Senator Bingaman's energy bill while the EPA analysis of the bill is pending. To review the APA summary, please click here. To review the HFC provisions of the bill, please click here. |
Wesco Sends Condolences for Two Great Men
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We would like to send our condolences to the families, co-workers, and friends of Maxwell (Max) Jewell, the president of Fike Corporation and Jerry MacKay with Advanced Safety Systems, Inc.
Both men spent many years in the fire protection business, managing their companies and influencing the industry. The news of both Max and Jerry passing brings us much sadness. They will be greatly missed by all.
To see the FSSA update on Maxwell Jewell, click here.
To see the FSSA update on Jerry MacKay, click here.
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Get To Know Heather
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Hi, my names is Heather Mastrull and I am the Regional Accounts Manager for Wesco HMB, Inc. My varied clientele includes active and prospective east coast accounts as far north as Maine, and as far south as Virginia. I spend my time at Wesco either on the phone or at various trade shows, introducing and explaining the vast fire suppression services Wesco has to offer. My previous jobs have provided me with valuable learning experiences in verbal and written communication skills, as well as the cultivation of business relationships. Read More...
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Have You Seen?
The Boeing and Airbus Fast Motion Assembly Videos
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Commercial aviation has always been listed as a Critical End User of Halons due to the extreme conditions that aircraft are exposed to and the ineffectiveness of any halon alternative. The redeeming part of this is that much of the world's inventory of halons (totally over 140,000 tons of halon 1301 and halon 1211), which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, are given a second chance to do what they were designed to do - protect people and property.
The link below is a tribute to both Boeing and Airbus and the massive task they are both involved in, to bring us safe and economical air transport. In the end, it really is Rocket Science! Click here to see the amazing videos of the 737 and A380 coming together from all over the world!
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To view our most recent as well as past advertising, please click here.
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