Celotex, another widely used insulating material in nearly every home and other buildings, including I picked up a few pieces that were surplous to the requirement from a friend's house when he had his loft conversion done, there were 5 sheets of 8x4 x 50mm thick pieces being left outside for anyone to take away, I put them in my car and brought them home to be used as insulator for my loft used only for storage purpose.
check this;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyisocyanurate
extract below:
Health hazards[edit]
PIR insulation can be a mechanical irritant to skin, eyes, and upper respiratory system during fabrication (such as dust). No statistically significant increased risks of respiratory diseases have been found in studies.
[3]
Fire risk[edit]
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PIR board fire test
PIR is at times stated to be
fire retardant, or contain fire retardants, however these describe the results of "small scale tests" and "do not reflect [all] hazards under real fire conditions";
[4][
better source needed] the extent of hazards from fire include not just resistance to fire but the scope for toxic byproducts from different fire scenarios. A 2011 study of fire toxicity of insulating materials at the
University of Central Lancashire's Centre for Fire and Hazard Science studied PIR and other commonly used materials under more realistic and wide-ranging conditions representative of a wider range of fire hazard, observing that most fire deaths resulted from toxic product inhalation. The study evaluated the degree to which toxic products were released, looking at toxicity, time-release profiles, and lethality of doses released, in a range of flaming, non-flaming, and poorly ventilated fires, and concluded that PIR generally released a considerably higher level of toxic products than the other insulating materials studied (PIR > PUR > EPS > PHF; glass and stone wools also studied).
[5] In particular,
hydrogen cyanide is recognised as a significant contributor to the fire toxicity of PIR (and PUR) foams.
[6]
Despite this PIR insulation is generally regarded as being more fire resistant than PUR insulation.
[7]
PIR insulation board (cited as the FR5000 product of Celotex, a Saint-Gobain company) was proposed to be used externally in the refurbishment of
Grenfell Tower, London, with vertical and horizontal runs of 100 mm and 150 mm thickness respectively;
[8] subsequently "Ipswich firm Celotex confirmed it provided insulation materials for the refurbishment."
[9] On 14 June 2017 the block of flats, within 15 minutes, was enveloped in flames from the fourth floor to the top 24th floor. The causes of the rapid spread of fire up the outside of the building have yet to be established.
[10] It should be noted that flames can occupy the cavity between the insulation material and the cladding, and be drawn upwards by convection, elongating to create secondary fires, and do so "regardless of the materials used to line the cavities".
[11]
Click on "8" to see a report prepared in 2012 called "Grenfell Tower Regeneration Project SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY STATEMENT PLANNING"
Click on "9" to see how fires in tall Dubai buildings spread rapidly using similar panels and the aftermath of aluminum panels falling to ground causing further secondary fires. Something we could have learned and rectified, but we did not, i hate to say this we in Britain don't like learning from others! rather we like others to learn from us! we have always had this attitude.
