Cargando…
Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods
Laboratory and room-scale experiments were conducted with natural and synthetic polymers: cotton, paper, wood, wool, acetate, acrylic, nylon, and urethane. Smoke and off-gases from single materials were generated in a dual-compartment 110-liter exposure chamber. Multicomponent, composite fuel loads...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
1976
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475268/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1026420 |
_version_ | 1782128065972797440 |
---|---|
author | Wright, P. L. Adams, C. H. |
author_facet | Wright, P. L. Adams, C. H. |
author_sort | Wright, P. L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Laboratory and room-scale experiments were conducted with natural and synthetic polymers: cotton, paper, wood, wool, acetate, acrylic, nylon, and urethane. Smoke and off-gases from single materials were generated in a dual-compartment 110-liter exposure chamber. Multicomponent, composite fuel loads were burned within a 100 m(3) facility subdivided into rooms. In chamber experiments, mortality depended on the amount of material burned, i.e., fuel consumption (FC). Conventional dose (FC)/mortality curves were obtained, and the amount of fuel required to produce 50% mortality (FC(50)) was calculated. With simple flame ignition, cotton was the only material that produced smoke concentrations lethal to rats; FC(50) values for cotton ranged from 2 g to 9 g, depending on the configuration of the cotton sample burned. When supplemental conductive heat was added to flame ignition, the following FC(50) values were obtained; nylon, 7 g; acrylic, 8 g; newsprint, 9 g; cotton, 10 g; and wood, 11 g. Mortality resulting from any given material depended upon the specific conditions employed for its thermal decomposition. Toxicity of off-gasses from pyrolysis of phosphorus-containing trimethylol propane—polyurethane foams was markedly decreased by addition of a flame ignition source. Further studies are needed to determine the possible relevance of single-material laboratory scale smoke toxicity experiments. Room-scale burns were conducted to assess the relative contributions of single materials to toxicity of smoke produced by a multicomponent self-perpetuating fire. Preliminary results suggest that this approach permits a realistic evaluation of the contribution of single materials to the toxicity of smoke from residential fires. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-1475268 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 1976 |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-14752682006-06-09 Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods Wright, P. L. Adams, C. H. Environ Health Perspect Articles Laboratory and room-scale experiments were conducted with natural and synthetic polymers: cotton, paper, wood, wool, acetate, acrylic, nylon, and urethane. Smoke and off-gases from single materials were generated in a dual-compartment 110-liter exposure chamber. Multicomponent, composite fuel loads were burned within a 100 m(3) facility subdivided into rooms. In chamber experiments, mortality depended on the amount of material burned, i.e., fuel consumption (FC). Conventional dose (FC)/mortality curves were obtained, and the amount of fuel required to produce 50% mortality (FC(50)) was calculated. With simple flame ignition, cotton was the only material that produced smoke concentrations lethal to rats; FC(50) values for cotton ranged from 2 g to 9 g, depending on the configuration of the cotton sample burned. When supplemental conductive heat was added to flame ignition, the following FC(50) values were obtained; nylon, 7 g; acrylic, 8 g; newsprint, 9 g; cotton, 10 g; and wood, 11 g. Mortality resulting from any given material depended upon the specific conditions employed for its thermal decomposition. Toxicity of off-gasses from pyrolysis of phosphorus-containing trimethylol propane—polyurethane foams was markedly decreased by addition of a flame ignition source. Further studies are needed to determine the possible relevance of single-material laboratory scale smoke toxicity experiments. Room-scale burns were conducted to assess the relative contributions of single materials to toxicity of smoke produced by a multicomponent self-perpetuating fire. Preliminary results suggest that this approach permits a realistic evaluation of the contribution of single materials to the toxicity of smoke from residential fires. 1976-10 /pmc/articles/PMC1475268/ /pubmed/1026420 Text en |
spellingShingle | Articles Wright, P. L. Adams, C. H. Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title | Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title_full | Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title_fullStr | Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title_full_unstemmed | Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title_short | Toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
title_sort | toxicity of combustion products from burning polymers: development and evaluation of methods |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475268/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1026420 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT wrightpl toxicityofcombustionproductsfromburningpolymersdevelopmentandevaluationofmethods AT adamsch toxicityofcombustionproductsfromburningpolymersdevelopmentandevaluationofmethods |