[urig]

That's an "all or nothing" fallacy, easily countered.

One alternative is water. Plus alternative products might be less efficient but less contaminating. Finally, even with Phos-Check, success is far from guaranteed.

Bottom line: the lack of transparency must be remedied and officials need to be aware and factor in heavy metal contamination into their decisions.

[daedrdev]

Fires burining neibhorhoods already produce massive ammounts of toxic and heavy metals. It literally is just adding a little more to the already extremly present pollution

[GenshoTikamura]

The present pollution is the result of incremental addition of little more to what was little less at that moment, while seeking excuse in alreadism

[n2d4]

Water is not a fire retardant. Water can extinguish fire, but you can't apply water on a forest to prevent a fire from spreading there in the first place.

Your last paragraph seems to agree with parent? We should know what's inside, but it might still be the best solution.

[amarant]

Yeah you can! Wet forest does not burn as well as dry forest!

Water is absolutely a fire retardant, however it may not be quite as effective as the red stuff from the article.

[iamacyborg]

Given the temperatures some wildfires are burning at, I suspect water isn’t available in suitable quantities to act as a retardant for fires that require these kinds of measures.