Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Removal of Restrictions on Certain Fire Suppression Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Substances; and Listing of Substitutes

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking direct final action to remove restrictions previously imposed on the use of certain substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. Specifically, EPA is rescinding use conditions imposed under the SNAP program that limit human exposure to halocarbon and inert gas agents used in the fire suppression and explosion protection industry. These use conditions are redundant with safety standards that have since been established by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). These halocarbon and inert gas agents will now either be acceptable or acceptable subject to narrowed use limits, depending on the specific agent. Today, EPA is also taking direct final action to change the listing from acceptable, subject to use conditions, to unacceptable, for a fire suppressant which the manufacturer has withdrawn from the market because of concerns about fetal toxicity; add a substitute to the SNAP list of acceptable substitutes with narrowed use limits in the fire suppression and explosion protection sector; and change a listing decision to remove a restriction from one substitute and to make it an acceptable agent for fire suppression and explosion protection, without use conditions or narrowed use limits. EPA is issuing a companion proposal to this direct final rule elsewhere in today's Federal Register. If we receive any adverse comments in response to an amendment, table, or table entry of the rule, EPA will withdraw those amendments, tables, or table entries of this direct final action and will consider and respond to any comments prior to taking any new, final action.