BS 7982:2001

This British Standard gives guidance to site operators, emergency planners and local authorities on the likely environmental impact of large-scale fires involving significant quantities of stored plastics. This includes:

1. stocks of plastics raw materials stored prior to or during manufacture;
2. stocks of fabricated articles stored after manufacture;
3. stocks of articles for sale, e.g. in warehouses;
4. stocks of articles awaiting recycling.

The environmental impact of effluents from incinerators and power stations is not included.

Rubber tyres are not within the scope of this standard as they are the subject of separate guidance issued by the Home Office [1].

NOTE 1 Stocks of finished plastics and rubber articles at point of sale (e.g. garden centres) that contain very large quantities of plastics form a further category. This category is different from the four cited in 1a) to 1d) because large numbers of people can often be involved. A major plastics fire in a confined area, such as on a ship, forms yet another category.

NOTE 2 Whilst rubbers and rubber products are not covered in this standard, much of the guidance may be applied to them as well as to plastics. There are many similarities in chemical composition between thermoplastic elastomers and more rigid thermoplastics and the fire effluents from the two families of products are similar. Much of the guidance issued by the Home Office [1] for the storage of rubber tyres may be used as a example of how to manage large stocks of plastic products.

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