Application of human and animal exposure studies to human fire safety

Toxic hazards to people in fires depend upon the main physiological and pathological effects of exposure to toxic fire effluents and the mechanisms whereby they impair escape and cause incapacitation and death. This chapter first considers how the development of the main toxic hazards (consisting of irritancy and asphyxiation) have been evaluated from studies of fire incidents and fire victims, and experimental studies of mechanisms of incapacitation using non-human primates and rodents. The advantages and limitations of using humans and each different animal species for measurement of sensory irritant, pulmonary irritant and asphxyxiant potencies to predict effects in humans are examined.

[1]  Y. Alarie,et al.  Sensory irritation by airborne chemicals. , 1973, CRC critical reviews in toxicology.

[2]  S. C. Packham,et al.  Modeling of Toxicological Effects of Fire Gases: Iv. Intoxication of Rats By Carbon Monoxide in the Presence of an Irritant , 1985 .

[3]  T. Cole,et al.  Ventilation, cardiac frequency and pattern of breathing during exercise in men exposed to O-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) and ammonia gas in low concentrations. , 1977, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and Cognate Medical Sciences.

[4]  J. L. Wilding,et al.  Toxicologic studies on o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile. , 1962, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.

[5]  D. Purser,et al.  The incapacitative effects of exposure to the thermal decomposition products of polyurethane foams , 1984 .

[6]  D. Purser.  3 – Toxicity of fire retardants in relation to life safety and environmental hazards , 2001 .

[7]  David Purser,et al.  ASET And RSET: Addressing Some Issues In Relation To Occupant Behaviour And Tenability , 2003 .

[8]  D. Purser,et al.  Effects of carbon monoxide on behavior in monkeys in relation to human fire hazard. , 1983, Archives of environmental health.

[9]  P C Bowes.  Smoke and toxicity hazards of plastics in fire. , 1974, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[10]  B. Ballantyne,et al.  Inhalation Toxicology and Pathology of Animals Exposed to o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile (CS) , 1972, Medicine, science, and the law.

[11]  J. E. Peterson,et al.  Experimental human exposure to carbon monoxide. , 1970, Archives of environmental health.

[12]  B C Levin,et al.  New research avenues in toxicology: 7-gas N-Gas Model, toxicant suppressants, and genetic toxicology. , 1996, Toxicology.

[13]  J. E. Peterson,et al.  Predicting the carboxyhemoglobin levels resulting from carbon monoxide exposures. , 1975, Journal of applied physiology.

[14]  Arthur F. Grand,et al.  Effects of Combustion Gases On Escape Performance of the Baboon and the Rat , 1985 .

[15]  I. Thomson,et al.  The importance of cyanide and organic nitriles in fire fatalities , 1979 .

[16]  Y. Alarie.  Bioassay for evaluating the potency of airborne sensory irritants and predicting acceptable levels of exposure in man. , 1981, Food and cosmetics toxicology.

[17]  I. N. Einhorn,et al.  Extreme toxicity from combustion products of a fire-retarded polyurethane foam. , 1975, Science.

[18]  Marcelo M. Hirschler,et al.  Irritancy of the smoke (non‐flaming mode) from materials used for coating wire and cable products, both in the presence and absence of halogens in their chemical composition , 1993 .

[19]  J. E. Peterson,et al.  Experimental human exposure to high concentrations of carbon monoxide. , 1973, Archives of environmental health.

[20]  Raija Kallonen,et al.  The Toxicity of Fire Effluents From Textiles and Upholstery Materials , 1985 .

[21]  A. C. Guyton,et al.  Measurement of the respiratory volumes of laboratory animals. , 1947, The American journal of physiology.

[22]  H. Flanagan,et al.  Essential Clinical Anesthesia: Carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning , 2011 .

[23]  C Bismuth,et al.  Elevated blood cyanide concentrations in victims of smoke inhalation. , 1991, The New England journal of medicine.

[24]  David A. Purser,et al.  Recent developments in understanding the toxicity of ptfe thermal decomposition products , 1992 .

[25]  D. Purser,et al.  Intoxication by cyanide in fires: a study in monkeys using polyacrylonitrile. , 1984, Archives of environmental health.

[26]  R E Forster,et al.  Considerations of the physiological variables that determine the blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration in man. , 1965, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[27]  D Purser,et al.  Behavioural impairment in smoke environments. , 1996, Toxicology.

[28]  Arthur F. Grand,et al.  Modeling of Toxicological Effects of Fire Gases: VI. Further Studies on the Toxicity of Smoke Containing Hydrogen Chloride , 1987 .

[29]  A. Watson,et al.  Fire Deaths in the Glasgow Area: I General Considerations and Pathology , 1981, Medicine, science, and the law.

[30]  David Purser,et al.  HCN Yields and Fate of Fuel Nitrogen for Materials under Different Combustion Conditions in the ISO 19700 Tube Furnace and Large-scale Fires , 2008 .

[31]  S. E. Harris,et al.  Effects of exposure to single or multiple combinations of the predominant toxic gases and low oxygen atmospheres produced in fires , 1987 .

[32]  D. Purser.  A Bioassay Model for Testing the Incapacitating Effects of Exposure To Combustion Product Atmospheres Using Cynomolgus Monkeys , 1984 .

[33]  Y C Alarie,et al.  Toxicologic and acute lethal hazard evaluation of thermal decomposition products of synthetic and natural polymers. , 1979, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.

[34]  Gordon E. Hartzell,et al.  Modeling of Toxicological Effects of Fire Gases: I. Incapacitating Effects of Narcotic Fire Gases , 1984 .

[35]  W. D. Woolley,et al.  Biological Studies of Combustion Atmospheres , 1983 .

[36]  P. J. Fardell,et al.  Basic aspects of combustion toxicology , 1982 .

[37]  Gordon L. Nelson.  Carbon Monoxide and Fire Toxicity: A Review and Analysis of Recent Work , 1998 .

[38]  C. Barrow,et al.  A short-term test to predict acceptable levels of exposure to airborne sensory irritants. , 1979, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal.

[39]  Lung Irritance and Inflammation during and after Exposures to Thermal Decomposition Products from Polymeric Materials , 1983, Medicine, science, and the law.

[40]  David Purser.  Interactions Among Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen Cyanide, Low Oxygen Hypoxia, Carbon Dioxide, and Inhaled Irritant Gases , 2000 .

[41]  S. A. Ames,et al.  Chemical aspects of combustion toxicology of fires , 1979 .

[42]  Y. Alarie,et al.  Ergometer within a whole-body plethysmograph to evaluate performance of guinea pigs under toxic atmospheres. , 1989, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.