Use in Foam Blowing

is being evaluated as a blowing agent in a variety of therm oset foam applications.

Blowing agent end uses include: Rigid Polyurethane : Appliance foam includes insulati on foam in domestic refrigerators

and freezers. Rigid Polyurethane: Spray, Commercia l Refrigeration and Sandwich Panels includes insulation for roofing, wall, pipes, metal doors, vending machines, coolers, buoyancy, and refrigerated transport vehicles. Polyurethane: Extruded Sheet includes foam for buoyancy or flotation. Rigid Polyurethane : Slabstock and Other includes in sulation for panels and pipes. Rigid Polyurethane & Polyisocy anurate Laminated Boardstock includes insulation for roofing and walls.

Phenolic Insulation Board & Bunstock includes insulation for roofing and walls.

Estimates of worker exposure to a new ch emical substance can be made based upon a general knowledge of the processes used and the work practices employed. It is important to understand that in foam applications, a lthough the blowing agent is added neat to a blend tank, it is not processed neat in the foam reaction but as part of a raw material blend (B-side). The blend contains various ot her components. This blend is mixed with diisocyanates (A-side) in foam processing e quipment and then poured or sprayed into a mold, free-rise conveyer system, cavity, wall or roof surface and the resulting polymer

foam material is allowed to cure. The blow ing agent becomes trapped in the cells of the foam as it cures, thus giving the foam insu lating properties and lim iting the amount of the chemical in the surrounding environment. Typical foam manufacturing lines employ from 3-9 people, each with varying degrees of potential exposure to the new chemical substance. In a traditional spray foam app lication there are 2-4 people in the immediate vicinity of the spray application all of whom are wearing re spiratory PPE. All sites using the blowing agent employ engineering, i ndustrial hygiene and personal protective controls to strictly limit worker and envi ronmental exposure to the diisocyanates and other components of the foam mixture. These controls will au tomatically limit the potential worker exposure to the blowing agent.

Any foam which currently uses HFC-245fa as th e blowing agent is a potential application

for We have not measured emissions during its use in blowing agent applications because the sufficient quant ities with which to carry out significant commercial scale trials have not yet been pr oduced. However, in the course of Product Stewardship and R&D for HFC-245fa, ai r sampling was conducted at some representative customer sites to determine levels of HFC- 245fa at various workstations during full scale polyurethane foam manufacturing operations. We believe that HFC245fa is an acceptable surrogate for due to its similar physical property characteristics, most notably its boiling point , vapor pressure and h eat of vaporization.

Reference: Table XTable X: Comparison of Physical Properties

HFC-245fa Boiling Point, oF 66 62.4 Vapor Pressure, PSIA @ 68 oF 16 18 Heat of Vaporization, Btu/lb at bp 83.4 84.6

Attachment 1 contains the results of the HF C-245fa emissions measurements. Both area and personnel exposure data were collect ed during roofing and wall spray foam applications; as well as area samples and pers onnel exposure data dur ing appliance, pour in place, bunstock and boardstock manufactur ing trials. The area and personnel exposure samples were collected via one of 3 pro cedures depending upon location and HFC-245fa concentration: via evacuated air cans and later analyzed by GC, via a Model R1-413 halocarbon Indicator manufactured by GASTE CH, Inc., and a Assay Technology passive

dosimeter.

When reviewing the monitoring data, it is im portant to realize that many samples were

taken at vent holes and other locations wher e it would be impossible for workers to be present, i.e. inside hoods or at the end of lines beneath large vents. These sampling points were chosen to determine worst cas e levels at the points where the greatest concentrations are typically expected. Leve ls at locations where workers are typically situated without PPE are expected to be less than 10 ppm. It should be noted that the highest levels recorded occurred near the applicator during sprayi ng of polyurethane wall foam in a home under construction. During this work, entry into the application area is restricted to only personnel wearing appropriate PPE. Higher levels were also found at a research and development facility. Neither of these locations is set up with the same sophistication and standard engineering controls that exist in a commercial facility. In all applications and jo b functions, based upon the physic al properties of the new chemical, actual exposure is expected to be equivalent to what is seen with HFC-245fa

systems.

The number of sites at which will be pr ocessed and used for test marketing is uncertain but will be limited to those customers who have completed confidentiality agreements. We anticipate the number of sites to be approximately 100. All sites will be industrial facilities, commercial facilities or polyurethane spray foam sites utilizing HSE trained applicators. These are sites and a pplicators that have been using similar fluorocarbons in these applications for a num ber of years. Since the properties of do not differ substantially from thos e of fluorocarbons historically used, adaptation of these manufacturing and applic ation processes to the new blowing agent should not pose any special difficulties. This has been demonstrated with initial proof of concept foam testing. (Reference paper Bowma n, et. al. and Bogdan, et . al.) Due to the similarity in physical properti es of to HFC-245fa it is logical to believe that there would be comparable emissions and therefore exposure scenarios under the same processing conditions. Therefore, we do not expect exposure scenarios to be any different than those of similar fluorocarbons on the market today and believe there will beno problem in maintaining a worker leve l well below the Honeywell temporary Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) of 500ppm.

exhibits desirable environmental pr operties. The GWP of is much

lower than that of HFC-245fa. ha s an atmospheric lifetime of 26 days and a Global Warming Potential of 7. An increasi ngly important environmental property is photochemical reactivity, i.e., pa rticipation in the reactions that generate ground-level ozone and other components of photoche mical smog. Control of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from industrial proc esses and products is mandated at both the federal and state levels. A petition w ill be filed to exempt from the

definition of VOC on the basis that exhibits very low photochemical reactivity.

Finally, it should be noted that is co nsidered to exhibit only a low order of toxicity. Based on review of t oxicity test results to date, Honeywell has set a temporary Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) of 500ppm. This value will be reevaluated after the final results from ongoing toxi cology testing are reviewed. The temporary value is significantly higher than the P ELs assigned to many currently used blowing agents and is considered to be a very useful property of a blowing agent.