Quote from the note sent by the Commission (DG Environment) to the EU Member States which is nothing else thant a blund lie about the challenges to replace Halon portable extinguishers in aircraft. It seems that the Commission does not care about reduced aviation safety margins (due to less effective fire fighting capabilities), does not care about the increased weight (and associated fuel and co2 emissions - this for a negligable benefit for the ozon layer taking into account low amount of halon emissions by aviation) and off course does not care about the cost for the airline industry.
quote'
With few exceptions, new civil aircraft are still being designed and built with halon critical use systems and portable extinguishers on board. However, two fluorocarbon alternatives (HFC-227ea and HFC-236fa) which meet sector-agreed minimum performance standards are currently available for crew compartment and cabin portable extinguishers (4.2) and lavatory waste receptacle fixed systems (4.5). No technical or economic barriers exist to replacing the halon lavatory waste receptacle systems in new aircraft. Some additional costs would be incurred in replacing halon cabin portable extinguishers. The commercially-available alternative portable extinguishers that utilise these two substances are larger and heavier than the halon equivalent, and their adoption would likely require additional training for cabin crew. However, they are considered to be feasible options for this application. Other substances may also prove suitable if submitted for minimum performance standard testing.
Based on this note the Commisison proposes to ban Halon for portable extinguisher in new production aeroplanes from 2011 and propsoes retrofit by 2020....