Flammability Test of Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer

摘要

Some concerns have been raised about the flammability characteristics of personal hand sanitizer, which is presently being used in lavatories on many commercial airlines to mitigate the spread of the H1N1 virus. Personal hand sanitizer is a fluid, which is generally composed of approximately 60% ethyl alcohol by volume, and comes in two primary forms: liquid and gel. To examine the general flammability characteristics of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, a series of small-scale tests were performed at the William J. Hughes Technical Center by the Fire Safety Team. Both gel and liquid hand sanitizers were examined. Tests were also performed to determine if hand sanitizer spillage could pose a significant fire threat. The effect of burning hand sanitizer on typical aircraft materials was examined. Antibacterial liquid soap was also burned adjacent to typical aircraft materials to compare with the hand sanitizer results. As expected, hand sanitizer is flammable and can easily be ignited with a common grill lighter when poured into a pan. It tends to burn relatively cool, compared to fuel, plastic, or cellulose fires with peak flame temperatures between 500DG and 1000DGF. The observed temperatures above the flame were higher for the liquid hand sanitizer compared to the gel. The vapor is flammable and can be ignited by heating the liquid from the bottom and then igniting the vapor. The hot liquid does not have to be present to ignite the vapor; however, the vapor could not be ignited at room or elevated ambient temperatures (up to 100DGF) without bottom-heating the hand sanitizer. When a nearly full bottle of sanitizer was involved in a fire started by burning paper towels, it burned hotter and somewhat vigorously. At one point, a fire burning adjacent to a 12-ounce liquid bottle of hand sanitizer reached temperatures in excess of 1500DGF. When the hand sanitizer was burned adjacent to typical aircraft interior panels oriented horizontally or vertically, the panel did not ignite and burn independently, and there was no significant damage to the panel. From the tests conducted, burning hand sanitizer presents no significant risk to commercial transport aircraft fire safety, given the present cabin material flammability requirements.