Building materials, combustion

VOCs are emitted indoors by building materials (e.g., paints, pressed wood products, adhesives, etc.), equipment (photocopying machines, printers, etc.), cleaning products, stored fuels and automotive products, hobby supplies, and combustion activities (cooking, unvented space heating, tobacco smoking, indoor vehicle use). 

New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code - Art. 15. Part 1120 Combustion Toxicity Testing and Regulations for Implementing Building Materials and Finishes. Fire Gas Toxicity Data File. Albany, NY (1987). 

Fire Tests - Building Materials - Non-combustibility Test, 1990. 

Provided if the boiier/thermai oxidizer is installed in a room or building of combustible construction or the building or room contains significant quantities of combustible materials. 

Many things that are required to build a house rely on chemical reactions. Concrete, for example, is a mixture of cement, sand, and gravel or crushed stone. When water is added to this mixture, a chemical reaction called hydration takes place. During hydration, the compounds in the cement form chemical connections with the surrounding water molecules. Concrete is a popular building material because it is resistant to wind, water, rodents, and insects. It is also non-combustible, which means it will not catch fire. 

In the indoor environment, sources that can contribute to the VOC levels include building materials, occupants and their activities, ventilation systems and outdoor vehicular combustibles (Daisey et al., 1994 Molhave and Thorsten, 1991). Computations of indoor-outdoor ratios are frequently used to conclude indoor or outdoor sources (Daisey et al, 1994). Generally, derived findings originated from these samples collected when the ventilation systems were in operation. It is difficult to determine the major source of VOCs for the buildings studied because contributions from building materials, occupants and their activities, ventilation systems and outdoors are all present together. 

In the ASTM E84 25-foot tunnel furnace test (34) for measuring flame spread of building materials, an igniting pilot flame is applied to the underside of a horizontally mounted specimen. The flame heats the combustible material to pyrolysis, and the flammable gases given off are ignited by the pilot flame. 

The combustion products of burning wood—smoke and gases—are becoming of increased Importance. Code and building officials, builders, producers of building materials and furnishings, and all... 

During the initial stages of a fire, fire-retardant-treated wood contributes less heat than does untreated wood, especially from the flammable volatiles (8,26). This means that the spread of fire to nearby combustibles is slow. The fire tends to be confined to the primary source. In the ASTM E84 test for building materials, treated specimens produce about 75 percent less heat than untreated red oak. In a total combustion test, however, such as the National Bureau of Standards potential heat method (54), both treated and untreated wood release about the same total heat. 

Home is the most important setting for infants and young children. They often eat, play, and sleep in the same area. Examples of sources of exposure to pollutants include building materials (e.g. wood treated with arsenic-based pesticides), lead-based paints, insecticides that are sprayed indoors, fuel (e.g. coal and wood) for indoor cooking, disposal practices for domestic waste (e.g. incineration), household chemicals (e.g. solvents), and small-scale enterprises at the family residence (e.g. brick producers who operate low-technology combustion kilns and makers of pottery using lead-based paints). 

The cellulosic fire curve (ASTM E119) simulates the rate of temperature increase observed in a residential or commercial building fire where the main sources of combustion fuel are cellulosic in nature, such as wood, paper, furniture, and common building materials.91 The fire curve is characterized by a relatively slow temperature rise to around 927°C after 60 min. There has been some... 

Many test methods for the determination of the acute toxicity of combustion products from materials and products have been developed over the last two decades and continue to be developed and/or improved. In 1983, 13 of the methods published up to that time were evaluated by Arthur D. Little, Inc. to assess the feasibility of incorporating combustion toxicity requirements for building materials and finishes into the building codes of New York State. On the basis of seven different criteria, only two methods were found acceptable. These two methods were the flow-through smoke toxicity method developed at the University of Pittsburgh and the closed-system cup furnace smoke toxicity method developed at NIST (known at that time as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS)). Standard Reference Materials and protocols (SRM 1048 and SRM 1049) were developed at NIST and are available to the users of these methods to provide assurance that they are performing the methods correctly (see Relevant Websites ... 

ASTM E136-99 for behavior of materials in Building material test Determination of combustion characteristics of ... 

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