The Fractional Effective Dose Model for Assessment of Toxic Hazards in Fires

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A major thrust in combustion toxicology is in the development of mathe matical models for predicting toxic hazards from appropriate analytical, toxico logical and flammability data. Incremental exposure doses (concentration x time increments) are calculated and related to the total Cxt exposure dose which would be required to produce a given toxicological effect at the instan taneous concentration being considered. Continuous summation, or integra tion, of these "fractional effective doses" is carried out and the time at which the sum becomes unity represents the time at which exposed subjects would be expected to incur the effect, e.g., incapacitation, lethality, etc. The concept of the FED model can be used with either individual fire toxicants or with smoke produced from the burning of materials. In the first case, a data base of toxic potency values for individual component gases is used; in the latter, smoke toxic potency values for materials are employed along with mass burning rate data. Potentially valuable tools are obtained to enable assessment of toxic hazards.