Bibliotek

Mice were exposed for 30 minutes to smoke from burning polymers under flaming conditions using the UPitt II apparatus for evaluation of flaming combustion/toxicity of smoke. The burning conditions were selected to enable comparison to Douglas fir data previously presented. The principal toxicant was found to be CO for polymethyl methacrylate and polycarbonate. However, other toxicants, HCN and HCL, contributed to the observed lethality of smoke from rigid polyuerthane foam and polyvinyl chloride respectively. A Potential Smoke Hazard (PSH) index was developed by combining material performance characteristics with toxic potency, time to death, and rate of generation of toxicants by the burning polymer. The results indicate that polycarbonate has the lowest PSH, followed by Douglas fir, rigid polyerethane foam, polyvinyl chloride, and polymethyl methacrylate. The PSH index can be modified to use incapacitation data instead of lethality data. Also, it can incorporate the effect of smoke production on visibility.