Modern approaches to toxicological and hygienic assessment of extinguishing extensive fires

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Abstract

The analysis of investigations on hygienic and toxicological assessment of the volume of fire extinguishers gives reason to believe that at this stage they do not have a single sound methodical approach. This situation often causes conflicting opinions on the results, calling into question their practical value, makes it difficult to compare fire-extinguishers on hygienic and toxicological criteria, increases the material, labor and time required to perform stadies. In the preparation of the paper there was used “many years” personal experience on the toxicological research and hygienic regulation of fire volume extinguishing means, and also the data analysis of domestic and foreign scientific publications, regulatory and technical literature in this area. The list of basic medical and technical requirements to means of fire volume extinguishing, which will allow use of the available information and to seek specifically missing information on fire-extinguishers for the making of an informed decision concerning the possibility of their use in confined manned spaces. As hygiene regulations it is proposed to set the time of human stay in a safe environment with effective fire-extinguishing concentration of the test fire extinguishing agents which can be suggested not as a “maximum allowable”, but as “emergency” — maximum permissible length of stay. When assessing the risk of fire extinguishing means it has been justified the refusal to study the nature of the combined action of fire-extinguishers with the factors of the fire, the quantitative and qualitative composition of the possible products of thermal destruction of fire extinguishing agents. There was proposed an algorithm for the study, which will unify the toxicological and hygienic assessment of fire extinguishing agents, improve the repeatability and reproducibility of the results, save time and money by completing the research at the stage, the results of which could reasonably indicate to the impossibility of the use of fire-extinguishers in the presence of a person without means of enforcement of protection of respiration.

About the authors

Sergey M. Kuznetsov

S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy

Author for correspondence.
Email: Kusnez-S-Maks@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5104-5389

MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of General and Military Hygiene, S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, 194044, Russian Federation.

e-mail: Kusnez-S-Maks@mail.ru

Russian Federation

A. N. Grebenyuk

S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy; North-West Scientific Center of Hygiene and Public Health

Email: noemail@neicon.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9381-194X
Russian Federation

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