The effects of brominated flame retardants on the elements of fire hazard: a re-examination of earlier results

✍ Scribed by Frederic B. Clarke

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 110 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0308-0501
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1018(199905/06)23:3<109::aid-fam674>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Addition of halogen-containing 6ame retardants to reduce ignitability and 6ame spread is presumed to increase both the quantity of smoke produced and the toxicity of the 5re e8uent. In the case of brominated 6ame retardants (BFRs), this does not appear to be the case.

This work is a re-examination of the results of an earlier series of experiments carried out at the U.S. National Bureau of Standard (now NIST), in which product pairs were studied, one product in each pair was treated with a BFR and one was not. Comparative hazard analysis, using information not available to the original investigators, shows that, for the products under study, all three aspects of hazard = heat, smoke obscuration and 5re e8uent toxicity = are either reduced or una4ected by the action of the brominated agents. In particular, hydrogen bromide, a component of the 5re e8uent when brominated agents are present, was shown to be unimportant in the toxic hazard of full-scale 5res involving BFR-treated products.