Fire Toxicity

Toxic fire effluents are responsible for the majority of fire deaths, and an increasing large majority of fire injuries, driven by the widespread and increasing use of synthetic polymers. Fire safety has focused on preventing ignition and reducing flame spread through reducing the rate of heat release, while neglecting the important issue of fire toxicity. This is the first reference work on fire toxicity and the only scientific publication on the subject in the last 15 years.

Assessment of toxic effects of fires is increasingly being recognized as a key factor in the assessment of fire hazards. This book raises important issues including the types of toxic effluents that different fires produce, their physiological effects, methods for generation and assessment of fire toxicity, current and proposed regulations, and approaches to modeling the toxic impact of fires.

Richard Hull is Professor of Chemistry and Fire Science at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. His work has focused on fire retardant mechanisms, fire effluent toxicity and fire science. He was part of the team which has been pivotal in the development of the steady state tube furnace as the first internationally recognized standard for the assessment of fire gas toxicity (ISO TS 19700). As one of the only methods capable of replicating real fire conditions on a bench-scale, this has led to its growing acceptance, particularly for performance-based fire assessment.