Assessment of Fire Toxicity of Nitrocellulose Film during Storage

Abstract

During combustion of the nitrocellulose film, a significant amount of the toxic gases is released at the initial stage of the fire. This complicates the safe evacuation of film and photo storage personnel. The exact qualitative and quantitative composition of toxicants is unknown. Therefore, the assessment of the toxicity of combustion products of the above film is an urgent task. The purpose of the study is to experimentally determine the specific formation coefficients and partial density of the most hazardous toxic gases released during nitrocellulose film combustion. Modernization of a small-sized experimental setup was conducted, which allows to estimate the phosgene concentration. The composition of the film combustion products was experimentally studied. Experimental methods were are used for measuring and processing the combustion parameters of substances and materials, as well as the methods for analyzing the results obtained. During the experiments, the partial densities and specific formation coefficients of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and nitrogen dioxide were obtained. Hydrogen cyanide and phosgene were found to be the most hazardous toxicants. The maximum weight is estimated related to the film placed in a room of a given volume, at which the partial densities of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene and nitrogen dioxide do not reach the critical values for humans. The results obtained will allow expanding the database of combustible load on the specific coefficients of formation of the above compounds, which is used in the calculation of fire risks in the storage of film and photographic documents. During combustion of the nitrocellulose film as the most hazardous combustible load in these rooms, it is necessary to consider the time of blocking escape routes by carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and nitrogen dioxide.