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It is generally understood that in case of fire, the real threat is smoke. That fact is complicated by the fact that smoke is not one standardized aerosol, as Iowa State University researchers Prof. Guowen Song and Dr. Rui Li explained in their presentation at ATA’s recent Emerging Technologies (ET) Conference.
The team has created a controlled simulation platform named ACCESS designed to analyze how smoke from different types of fires is likely to interact with materials. The researchers stress that their platform is not a substitute for field validation, but it does help to more accurately focus on the specific risks and challenges in various fire scenarios.
A wildland fire is primarily fueled by vegetation and is geographically significant, whereas a structural fire such as a house will be a mix of vegetation, polymers and furnishings within it. In a battery-involved fire, such as a car fire, there’s the battery itself and other co-burning materials. Firefighters therefore can be exposed to multiple smoke hazards and residue that lingers after the flame is put out.
Addressing the challenge of cleaning the PPE itself involves determining penetration of the contaminants, where they are deposited, what is retained after cleaning, and what transfers, re-suspends or re-emits later. It’s not hard to see that being able to control smoke helps “separate processes that are entangled at a real incident,” the researchers point out.
In testing, the researchers determined that, “contamination was detected on all tested PPE layers after exposure,” and cautioned that “visual cleanliness is not chemical cleanliness.” Decontamination requires a sequenced approach with a preliminary step to reduce “gross surface contamination” before handling or transporting, followed by a “defined laundering protocol” to remove the remaining contaminants.
The end goal for ACCESS is to support those engineering textiles and textile applications in making products that will better mitigate the dangers inherent in smoke contaminants and residue, including those that can linger longer-term on textile applications – even dangers one might not expect. For example, “Biological stuff can be carried by the emissions and by the smoke; it does transport,” Prof. Song says.
Beyond “fresh smoke,” such as from wildfires nearby, atmospheric aging (what happens before that smoke gets to us) also presents its own hazards. In our homes and other buildings, what happens with filtration (our HVAC systems), as well as indoor-material contamination, such as in our clothes and furniture? All these scenarios can impact our health and safety.