Smoke toxicity assessment of burning video compact disc boxes by a cone calorimeter

Video compact discs (VCD) are usually stored in plastic boxes for protection. Smoke toxicity of burning VCD boxes in a cone calorimeter will be assessed in this article. Samples of the materials commonly available in the market are burnt under different radiant heat fluxes from 10 kWm ^-2 to 70 kWm ^-2. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emitted are measured. The effects to human beings will be assessed based on the fractional exposure dose (FED) measured in the cone calorimeter. Smoke toxicity effects in real-scale fires will be estimated by some correlations. It is further confirmed that very different smoke toxicity effects will result from different scenarios of burning the VCD boxes. © 2004, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.