Toxic Fires in the Age of Plastics

By: Deborah Wallace and Frank Leeb

This second edition updates and expands Deborah's groundbreaking 1990 study of fire toxicology, which argued for stricter fire safety regulations by highlighting the dangers of toxic smoke from modern materials, especially plastics.

Leeb joins this new edition as co-author, bringing on-the-ground experience and knowledge of techniques to mitigate deadly scenarios involving modern materials.

This edition addresses the scourge of cancer in firefighters who encounter toxic smoke.  Survival times are shorter because of the synthetic materials and plastics commonly in use today.  This highly anticipated new edition builds on the ahead-of-its-time original by updating terminology, supplying a wealth of new information for fighting modern fires and explaining the interconnectedness of the modern fire environment and cancer.