News: Authorities in the United States are using planes to drop pink fire retardant to curb the Southern California Wildfires.
About Pink Fire Retardant
- Fire retardant is a mix of chemicals used to extinguish or slow down the spread of fires.
- Authorities in the US most commonly rely on Phos-Chek, a type of fire retardant, that mostly contains an ammonium phosphate-based slurry.
- Generally, it is made of salts such as ammonium polyphosphate, which do not evaporate easily like water and stay for longer.
- Phos-Chek appears pink as pink color is added to it to improve visibility.
- Color is added to the fire retardant to enable the firefighters to see against the landscape.
- This helps them create fire lines around the fire retardant, thus saving lives and properties.
- Experts have argued that spraying fire retardants is ineffective, expensive and leads to water pollution.
- A study found that Phos-Chek is laden with toxic metals like chromium and cadmium that can cause diseases like cancer in humans.
- Even the effectiveness of Phos-Chek is increasingly being questioned.
