Introduction to Flame Retardancy and Polymer Flammability

Together with numerous advantages that synthetic polymeric materials provide to society in everyday life, there is one obvious disadvantage related to the high flammability of many synthetic polymers. Polymers are used in manufacturing not only bulk parts but also films, fibers, coatings, and foams, and these thin objects are even more combustible than molded parts. Fire hazard is a combination of factors, including ignitability, ease of extinction, flammability of the volatile products generated, amount of heat released on burning, rate of heat release, flame spread, smoke obscuration, and smoke toxicity, as well as the fire scenario.1 – 3 Fire fatalities are usually reported as resulting from the lethal atmosphere generated by fires. Carbon monoxide concentrations measured in real fires can reach up to 7500 ppm,4 which would probably result in a loss of consciousness in 4 minutes.3 Other components of acute toxicity found in real fires play a secondary role: Hydrogen cyanide was measured at levels between 5 and 75 ppm, and for irritants such as hydrogen chloride and acrolein, 1 to 280 and 0.3 to 15 ppm were found, respectively.4 A recent statistical study covering almost 5000 fatalities showed that the vast majority of fire deaths are attributable to carbon monoxide poisoning, which results in lethality at concentrations much lower than believed previously.5 Moreover, the same study showed that blood carbon monoxide loadings in fire

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