Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what use the fire service (a) has made and (b) makes of perfluorooctane sulphonate; and what advice and guidance the Department has issued on its use. [70019] Angela E. Smith: Perfluorooctane sulphonate, known as PFOS, is used in a number of industrial applications and was used as an ingredient in two particular firefighting foam concentrate ranges for petrochemical fires. In October 2004 DEFRA consulted on a national action to restrict the use of PFOS following evidence to suggest that it could be harmful in certain circumstance to both the environment and humans. However, before consultations had been completed, the European Commission suspended our unilateral action and subsequently issued its own draft Directive to restrict the marketing and use of PFOS. In this draft, all current PFOS uses, including firefighting foam, would be allowed to continue. This would not therefore allow the UK to set regulations to ban its use.
The stocks of foams based on PFOS are diminishing but it is likely that some fire and rescue services do still hold some stocks. As a result DCLG, jointly with the Environment Agency, are proposing a voluntary phasing out of PFOS based firefighting foams and will shortly be issuing guidance to the fire and rescue services requesting them to no longer use these foams and instead to consider the use of alternatives once they are satisfied the performance of these alternatives meets their needs. Some fire and rescue services have already voluntarily substituted their stocks of PFOS foams with alternatives, the old foam having been destroyed by incineration. | 
