[GSBN] Smoke vs Flames (was re:Re: FASBA Fire test)

[RT]

in GSBN Digest, Vol 34, Issue 19, Bruce King of Sausalito wrote:

> And, while I'm sure that plenty of unpleasant gases and particulates  
> come out of burning straw, I bet that, as a whole, the effects are much  
> less harmful than the junk that come out of burning  
> modern/industrialized building materials, especially plastics and the  
> hundreds of petrochemical compounds that we routinely use.

I'm undecided as to whether or not to take Bruce's bet.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that in over 90% of building fires that  
result in deaths,  the deaths were due to the smoke (carbon monoxide, CO2  
poisoning, lack of oxygen) rather than the flames.

Would I rather die of smoke from burning straw or smoke from burning  
plast-eccchhhh! ?

Surprisingly, some plast-ecccchhh! insulations generate very  
little/innocuous smoke when exposed to flame and some even self-extinguish  
when the flame is removed. But some plast-ecchhh! insulations generate  
great volumes of nasty-looking black smoke and continue to burn after the  
flame source is removed.

OTOH, mineral wool insulation (ie Roxul) simply does not burn and  
generates zero smoke.

I nominate the Alberquerky Derelict as a candidate to make a YouToob video  
demonstrating the fire and smoke characteristics of small samples of say,  
a dozen insulation (conventional and NatBuild) materials.

Thengya. Thengyallverramuch.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom					AOD257
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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