On the Use of Bench-Scale Smoke Toxicity Data in Fire Hazard and Risk Assessment.
On the Use of Bench-Scale Smoke Toxicity Data in Fire
Hazard and Risk Assessment.
(867 K)
Gann, R. G.
Volume 2;
Interflam 2004. (Interflam '04). International
Interflam Conference, 10th Proceedings. Volume 2. July
5-7, 2004. Organised by Interscience Communications
Ltd. in association with National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Building Research Establishment;
National Fire Protection Association; Society of Fire
Protection Engineers; and Swedish National Testing and
Research Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland, Interscience
Communications Ltd., London, England, 1421-1429 pp,
2004.
Keywords:
fire science; fire safety; fire hazard; risk assessment;
smoke; toxicity; safety engineering; incapacitation;
cone calorimeters
Abstract:
Fire safety engineering of facilities increasingly
includes some degree of assessment of the tenability by
occupants of a building in the event of a fife. These
assessments include estimates of the time available for
people to escape a burning facility or find safe refuge
within. Today's fire safety professionals use diverse
and ad hoc approaches to make these assessments because:
* There is no standard protocol for estimating the time
available for escape. * There is no agreement on which
toxicological effect(s) to base the estimation of time
available for escape.
* There is no widely accepted methodology of known
accuracy for generating the smoke toxic potency data
needed to implement the estimation.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899