The manufacturer of building materials AdePlast, on behalf of all local producers of polystyrene, calls on the government and the ministries concerned to amend the fire safety norm construction (P118 / 1). They argue that, as prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the regulation would lead to the disappearance of the estimated 100 million euro polystyrene market,  and to increased costs for thermal insulation of buildings by imposing the use of rock wool.

In an open letter addressed to the government, AdePlast notes that “norm does not use and does not require a class of reaction to fire for a thermal system as a whole (a set of grouped products, aiming to provide thermal protection for a building exterior walls), but for all components”. AdePlast requires the authorities to align to the practices in the European Union, where the requirements for assignment to a particular class of fire refers to thermal system as a whole, and not to individual components.

AdePlast warns that the new law “practicaly excludes the polystyrene from the materials that can be used both in new construction as well as in existing ones, which leads to the death of this industry in favor of the rock wool”. The message addressed to the authorities says that developed countries such as Germany or Austria used polystyrene for building insulation, as this material is half lass expensive compared to rock wool. In addition, Romania would be forced to import basalt wool, since there is no domestic production capacity of rock wool.

AdePlast launches this warning on behalf of the whole industry, and the views expressed are shared by Romanian producers of polystyrene, as well as by European producers of raw materials such as BASF, Synthos, Monotez-Ravago, Sunpor.

Specifically, AdePlast calls for an amendment to the fire safety norm in construction in order to align it with practices in the European Union:

• introducing the concept of thermal system or thermal insulation system as agreed on national and European level and, consequently, mentioning and introduction of conditions for entering in a particular class of reaction to fire for the thermal system as a whole, and not for its component parts
• a mandatory use of Class E reaction to fire for polystyrene, as it is the practice in Europe;
• elimination from the legislation of any details such as “We recommend the use of materials and construction elements Class …”, as they are against competition and they are a justification for discrimination in favor of a material over another