Combustion toxicology is a recent, applied science, the ultimate purpose of which is to reduce casualties from smoke inhalation. The present volume attempts an unbiased presentation of the state of the field. The authors have identified the misconceptions and unsupported conclusions in the literature, differentiating between fact and hypothesis and present the reader with an account of what is really known about the toxicity of smoke produced by materials. They also recommend an approach to evaluating the toxicity of combustion products.
Toxic fire effluents are responsible for the majority of fire deaths, and an increasing large majority of fire injuries, driven by the widespread and increasing use of synthetic polymers. Fire safety has focused on preventing ignition and reducing flame spread through reducing the rate of heat release, while neglecting the important issue of fire toxicity. This is the first reference work on fire toxicity and the only scientific publication on the subject in the last 15 years.Assessment of toxic effects of fires is increasingly being recognised as a key factor in the assessment of fire hazards. This book raises important issues including the types of toxic effluents that different fires produce, their physiological effects, methods for generation and assessment of fire toxicity, current and proposed regulations and approaches to modelling the toxic impact of fires.The contributors to Fire toxicity represent an international team of the leading experts in each aspect of this challenging and important field. This book provides an important reference work for professionals in the fire community, including fire fighters, fire investigators, regulators, fire safety engineers, and formulators of fire-safe materials. It will also prove invaluable to researchers in academia and industry. - Investigates the controversial subject of toxic effluents as the cause of the majority of fire deaths and injuries - Describes the different types of toxic effluents and the specific fires that they produce, their physiological effects and methods for generation - Provides an overview of national and international fire safety regulations including current and proposed regulations such as a standardized framework for prediction of fire gas toxicity
This book addresses the three basic areas of combustion toxicology: combustion of materials, assessment of the toxicity of smoke, and understanding of hazards to humans. It is based on the papers published in the Journal of Fire Sciences during 1983-1987.
My heart sank when I was approached by Dr Hastings and by Professor Briggs (Senior Editor of Materials Science and Technology and Series Editor of Polymer Science and Technology Series at Chapman & Hall, respectively) to edit a book with the provisional title Handbook of Poly propylene. My reluctance was due to the fact that my former book [1] along with that of Moore [2], issued in the meantime, seemed to cover the information demand on polypropylene and related systems. Encour aged, however, by some colleagues (the new generation of scientists and engineers needs a good reference book with easy information retrieval, and the development with metallocene catalysts deserves a new update!), I started on this venture. Having some experience with polypropylene systems and being aware of the current literature, it was easy to settle the titles for the book chapters and also to select and approach the most suitable potential contributors. Fortunately, many of my first-choice authors accepted the invitation to contribute. Like all editors of multi-author volumes, I recognize that obtaining contributors follows an S-type curve of asymptotic saturation when the number of willing contributors is plotted as a function of time. The saturation point is, however, never reached and as a consequence, Dear Reader, you will also find some topics of some relevance which are not explicitly treated in this book (but, believe me, I have considered them).
This Practical Guide presents one of the most complete overviews of this important topic, covering smoke generation (including obscuration, toxicity, corrosivity), small and large scale smoke assessment, regulation of smoke, and methods of controlling smoke by plastics formulation. In particular this book focuses on the assessment of fire hazard and fire risks from combustion products and is an important book for plastics processors, regulatory personnel, and fire research and safety engineers. This book presents a state of the art overview of smoke formation from natural and synthetic polymeric materials. Also presented is a discussion on why different commercial polymers have different intrinsic tendencies to generate smoke and ways in which smoke generation can be assessed. Mechanisms and general approaches for decreasing smoke formation are examined.This book also gives an overview of flammability tests for measuring smoke formation. In particular, the criticality of assessing smoke formation in realistic scale is discussed. An overview is provided of regulations, codes and standards for critical application of polymeric materials where smoke generation is controlled. Common commercial approaches to decrease smoke formation in specific polymer systems and for specific applications are also presented. Finally, a balanced opinion on the controversial issue of smoke and associated combustion gases is given.
The sequel to The Abyssinian finds Jean-Baptiste Poncet in Persia practicing medicine for the Shah and trying to rescue his wife and daughter from inside the walls of a city under attack. Reprint. 11,500 first printing.
Flammability has been recognized as an increasingly important social and scientific problem. Fire statistics in the United States (Report on the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, "America Burning," 1973) emphasized the vast devastation to life and property-12,000 lives lost annually due to fire and these deaths are usually caused by inhaling smoke or toxic gases; 300,000 fire injuries; 11. 4 billion dollars in fire cost of which 2. 7 billion dollars is related to property loss; a billion dollars to burn injury treatment; and 3. 3 billion dollars in productivity loss. It is obvious that much human and economic misery can be attributed to fire situations. In relation to this, polymer flammability has been recognized as an increasingly important social and scientific problem. The development of flame-retardant polymeric materials is a current example where the initiative for major scientific and technological developments is motivated by sociological pressure and legisla tion. This is part of the important trend toward a safer environment and sets a pattern for future example. Flame retardancy deals with our basic everyday life situations-housing, work areas, transportation, clothing and so forth the "macroenvironment" capsule within which "homosapiens" live. As a result, flame-retardant polymers are now emerging as a specific class of materials leading to new and diversified scientific and technological ventures.
This handbook focuses on physical, structural, and compositional properties of elastomeric materials and plastics. It provides a broad overview of the physical and physicochemical properties of synthetic rubbers that are used in conventional cured applications.
