ABSTRACT
Research in combustion toxicology over the past few years has led to a reasonable understanding and even quantification of some of the effects of fire effluent toxicants and, with the availability of a modest amount of both non-human primate and human exposure data, the combustion toxicologist is gaining increasing capability to assess and predict the toxicological effects of smoke inhalation.
This paper presents a mathematical approach, based on experimental data, for the prediction of both incapacitating and lethal effects on rats exposed to carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. Elementary examples are given for computer simulation of the development of toxic hazards in fires and comparisons are made with actual experimental results. These comparisons show that computer-predicted times to toxicological effects lie within the standard deviation of experimental mean values.
The concepts described may ultimately obviate the routine use of laboratory animals for combustion toxicity testing and also open the way to the prediction of toxicological effects on humans exposed to fires.
