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Smoke and toxicity
Author(s) -
Smith D. A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
fire and materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-1018
pISSN - 0308-0501
DOI - 10.1002/fam.810090404
Subject(s) - safer , fire safety , smoke , work (physics) , flammability , hazard , toxic gas , product (mathematics) , fire protection , risk analysis (engineering) , inherent safety , forensic engineering , engineering , architectural engineering , business , computer science , waste management , civil engineering , computer security , mechanical engineering , reliability engineering , materials science , chemistry , geometry , organic chemistry , mathematics , composite material
Smoke and toxic gases (STG) are the main cause of fire deaths. They combine to make escape difficult and to retard rescue work and fire‐fighting. The paper reviews advances in the characterization of the STG hazard, and discusses improved materials of construction to meet the new, more stringent safety criteria used by responsible architects and design engineers. Because of the wide choice of safer materials now available at reasonable cost in a number of product areas such as furniture foams and cable insulation, the time is approaching when such materials can be introduced without harming the economics of these industries. Indeed, a convincing demonstration of intrinsic safety could without harming the economics of these industries. Indeed, a convincing demonstration of intrinsic safety could encourage the introduction of improved plastics and other organic materials into a wide range of market applications.