- Author
-
Alarie, Y. C.
- Title
- Evaluation of a Method for Acute Toxicity of Smoke From Polymeric Materials.
- Coporate
- Pittsburgh Univ., PA
- Report
-
NBSIR 85-3118,
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Book or Conf
- National Bureau of Standards. 7th Joint Panel Meeting of the UJNR Panel on Fire Research and Safety. October 24-28, 1983,
Gaithersburg, MD,
489-501 p.,
['1983', '1985']
- Keywords
-
acute toxicity
- Abstract
- There is a need to develop methods to evaluate the acute toxicity of smoke from synthetic and natural materials. This need arises from the fact that synthetic polymers, because of their chemical composition, will release smoke qualitatively different from smoke obtained from commonly used natural polymers such as cotton and wood. Also the rate of release of smoke from synthetic polymers can be much higher than for wood and finally the yeild of principal toxicant(s) may be higher. An ideal solution would be to have a complete qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis of the smoke but this cannot be obtained easily. Therefore, we rely on animal models to rapidly evaluate possible differences in potency of smoke from various materials. There are two basic problems with this approach. The first one is that a fire model must be used to decompose the samples. The second one is extrapolation to humans of the results obtained in animals. This report presents the approach we have taken the basis for ranking materials for their acute toxicity, the reasons why in general smoke from synthetic materials is more toxic than smoke from wood and the corrections to be made in extrapolating the results to humans.