Analysis of toxic effluents released from PVC carpet under different fire conditions

Abstract

A large number of investigations have been reported on minimising the PAH and PCDD/F yields during controlled combustion, such as incineration. This study is an attempt to quantify acute and chronic toxicants including PAH and PCDD/F in conditions relating to unwanted fires. This paper investigates distribution patterns of fire effluents between gas and aerosol phase, and the different particle size-ranges produced under different fire conditions. PVC carpet was selected as the fuel as a precursor for both PAH and PCDD/F. In order to generate fire effluents under controlled fire conditions, the steady-state tube furnace, was chosen as the physical fire model. Fire scenarios included oxidative pyrolysis, well-ventilated and under-ventilated fires. Fire effluent measurements included: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and furans and soot. The distribution patterns between gas and particle phase, and the size-ranges of the particles produced in these fires together with their chemical composition is also reported. Significant quantities of respirable submicron particles were detected, together with a range of PAHs. Lower levels of halogenated dioxins were detected in the fire residue compared with those found in other studies. Nevertheless, the findings do have implications for the health and safety of fire and rescue personnel, fire investigators, and other individuals exposed to the residue from unwanted fires.

Particle and volatile organic emissions from the combustion of a range of building and furnishing materials using a cone calorimeter

“…The most extensively studied class of combustion products was inorganic gases. A small number of studies also investigated other pollutants including VOCs [27,31,32,35,39,44], PAHs [27][28][29]31,33,37,38,[45][46][47][48], dioxins and/or other persistent organic pollutants [33,40,47,[49][50][51][52] and particle size distribution [45,53]. Organic compounds were considered to be a potential hazard, but in most studies individual compounds have not been identified or quantified.…”

Fire toxicity – The elephant in the room?

“…Using the steady state tube furnace (ISO TS 19700), the generation of isocyanates from materials such as PUR mattresses and insulation materials as well as PVC carpets and wood board were analysed [11,47]. A correlation between the magnitude of the obtained yields for isocyanates from the PUR materials from the well-ventilated stage and yields from PUR from the cone calorimeter was reported.…”

“…In laboratory animals and human lung cell lines they have been shown to cause the increased oxidative stress resulting in regeneration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in biological systems, and associated with cancer, pulmonary and other diseases [62,63]. The formation of potentially toxic particulates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and isocyanates, and their distribution between gas phase and solid phase for different building material fires has been investigated [47].…”

“…The tendency to adsorb onto organic carbon (e.g. soot particles) increases with increasing molecular weight so the high molecular weight compounds (more than four fused rings, such as benzo(ghi)perylene, dibenzo(ah)anthracene) occur in the atmosphere mainly as particulates [47].…”

Influence of the interaction on NOx emission during co-combustion of combustible solid waste components

“…In the early period of co-combustion, benzene rings fixed in molecular chain of PS would be broken, so did lateral chloride of PVC in the same time. According to related researches [25,26], the process of dechlorination would occur before the combustion of PVC, and benzene and imidazole could be found during this process. Dechlorination could be regarded as the stage of devolatilization during PVC combustion.…”