The International Standards Organisation working group ISO/TC 92/SC3 is defining recognised model methods for assessing the possible consequences of fires in buildings or vehicles on life (risk of casualty), health and the environment. These models provide regulators, safety engineers and researchers with tools to define when and how life safety in fires should be evaluated, to analyse dangers of smoke and gases emitted in fires (quantity of smoke, inhibition of visibility and so of escape, toxicity, effects on persons exposed) and to assess when victims will be incapacitated by heat, gases or smoke.
They define how to analyse and measure smoke in fires or fire tests and how to analyse how a fire which has occurred led to injuries or deaths. They also establish what factors should be taken into account to determine the environmental risk of fire gases and smoke. The aim is to improve both building and fire safety system design cost-effectiveness and to reduce the human consequences of fires.
“Fighting the toxic environment of fire with ISO standards”, S. Tranchard, ISO News, 2/12/2015 December 2015
ISO 19702:2015 (August 2015) “Guidance for sampling and analysis of toxic gases and vapours in fire effluents using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy”