Measurement of toxic gases in fires by ftir

摘要

There are almost 1000 deaths per annum from fires in the UK, and in the majority of cases the cause of death is from smoke and toxic gases. There is currently a great deal of interest in the development of fire tests which will accurately predict the performance of materials in fires, including an assessment of their combustion toxicity. Modern materials are often complex formulations, with several additives including flame retardants and smoke suppressants. The presence of these additives can not only affect the more obvious fire performance parameters such as ignition time or heat release rates, but can have a significant impact on the toxicity of the combustion gases. For example many of the more irritant gases, such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and carbon monoixde (CO), can be produced in greater amounts during vitiated or smouldering combustion, compared to flaming combustion. Thus a flame retardant additive which appears to satisfactorily reduce that release rates could increase the amount of toxic gases produced. It is clearly important to know what the overall effect of an additive is, in order to identify the optmum formulations from a safety point of view.