The thermal decomposition of a polyester and a polyether flexible foam in a nitrogen atmosphere has been studied by gas chromatography, mass spec‐trometry and elemental ultramicroanalysis. It is shown that the decomposition behaviours of the two foams are similar. At low temperatures (200 to 300 °C) there is a rapid and complete loss of the tolylene diisocyanate unit of each foam as a volatile yellow smoke leaving a polyol residue. The smoke has been isolated as a yellow solid (common to both foams) which contains virtually all of the nitrogen of the original foams and, under the conditions of test, is stable at temperatures up to 750 °C. Nitrogen‐containing products of low molecular weight (mainly hydrogen cyanide, acetonitrile, acrylonitrile, pyridine and benzonitrile) observed during the high temperature decomposition (over 800 °C) of the foams are shown to be derived from the yellow smokes. At 1000 °C, approximately 70% of the available nitrogen has been recovered as hydrogen cyanide.
There is evidence supported by statistical information from fire deaths that many fire fatalities occur as a result of incapacitation of the victims by the toxic products given off during the early stages of fires, thereby preventing escape from the fire, rather than from direct exposure to heat or other factors. As an essential part of understanding these problems, a study has been made of the mechanisms of incapacitation resulting from exposures to atmospheres of thermal decomposition products from polymeric materials. Under conditions approved by the Home Office Inspector, individual cynomolgus monkeys were exposed to atmospheres increasing in separate experiments from very low smoke concentrations until early signs of physiological effects were detected. Measurements were made of two kinds of physiological parameters: vital signs (respiration, electrocardiography and respiratory blood gases) and parameters indicating effects on the nervous system (electroencephalography, auditory evoked potentials, nerve conduction velocity). The atmospheres generated were designed to study the effects of hypoxia, hypercapnia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and thermal decomposition products from wood, polyacrylonitrile, polyurethane foam, polypropylene, polystyrene and nylon produced under pyrolytic or oxidative conditions at a range of temperatures. The main findings were that the composition and hence the toxicity of the products from individual materials could vary considerably depending upon the different conditions of temperature and degree of oxygenation under which they were decomposed. However, despite the great complexity in chemical
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