Fire toxicity film angers plastics industry

Abstract

long-smoldering controversy over whether the growing use of plastic materials in buildings is increasing the hazards of building fires has burst into flame once again. latest flareup was sparked by a controversial videotape produced by the International Association of Fire Fighters, a trade union, with considerable funds from Atcor Inc., a company that makes steel pipe and thus competes directly with polyvinyl chloride for a large segment of the building trade market. film, called The Burning Issue, is a gut-level attack on the horrors of the toxic gases produced when buildings burn and which account for some 80% of fire deaths annually in the U.S. IAFF produced the film, and provided $15,000 for production costs, according to union president John A. Gannon. Atcor, he says, contributed $30,000 to $50,000 to the producer, but the union retained total control over film production and editing. Amid scenes of buildings engulfed in flames, scattered bodies ...