In 1987, more than 60 nations signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete Stratospheric Ozone, which prescribed measures to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons with high ozone depletion potential (ODP).

The U.S. government implemented the provisions of the Montreal Protocol through the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990, and required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a program to evaluate proposed substitutes for CFCs and ozone-depleting halons. This program is called the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP).

Halotron® product concepts were initially developed in Sweden to replace stratospheric ozone depleting halons 1211 and 1301, which were widely used in portable fire extinguishers and total flooding fire extinguishing systems respectively in the 1970s and 1980s. American Pacific Corporation (AMPAC) purchased exclusive rights to the Halotron technology concepts in 1992, and Halotron, Inc. was established as a subsidiary of AMPAC to optimize, more fully test and commercialize those original concepts worldwide. The Halotron Division is a successor by merger to Halotron, Inc.

Halotron I, the first in the series to be fully commercialized, was approved by the U.S. EPA SNAP program in 1994. Production of halons stopped in all developed countries by January 1, 1994.

There are currently two commercialized Halotron clean fire extinguishing agent products: Halotron® I and Halotron® II.