Fire LCA TV

Fire model

This study represents the first full application of the LCA model as defined above. This case study concentrates on a comparison between a TV with an enclosure manufactured from V0 rated High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS, typical for the US market) and one with HB rated HIPS (typical for the European market). A fire model has been defined based on international statistics, which indicate that use of V0 rated enclosure material essentially removes the risk of TV fires while approximately 165 TV fires occur per million TVs in Europe each year (where the enclosure material is breached)1

Large-scale experiments

Large-scale experiments have been conducted, on both free burning TVs and fully furnished lounge rooms, to provide fire emission data as input to the LCA model. Species measured include acute toxicants such as: CO, CO2, HCl, HBr, Sb, VOC (volatile organic compounds), and chronic toxicants such as PAH (polycyclic aromatic compounds), PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls), brominated and chlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans, and the flame retardant used in the V0 enclosure, decabromodiphenylether (deca-BDE). These results are the most detailed measurements of their kind and provide a realistic measure of the environmental cost of a high level of fire safety 2,3.

Fire test of European TV in furniture calorimeter

A detailed study has been made of the recyclability of commercial quality flame retarded HIPS (FR-HIPS) relative to non-flame retarded HIPS (NFR-HIPS). Results from this work show that the presence of the flame retardant does not prohibit the recycling of the plastic. Indeed the commercial HIPS grades used in this study indicate that the FR HIPS performs better than the NFR-HIPS after one cycle of thermo-oxidative ageing and recycling. The results also indicate that the flame retardant does not migrate out of the plastic or degrade in the plastic during the ageing and recycling process. This is confirmed by the retention of the V0 classification for the FR-HIPS even after ageing and recycling.

An investigation of the effect of the presence of flame retarded plastic in the fuel stream of a municipal waste incinerator on the product distribution from this incinerator has also been made. Input for the LCA model for energy recovery of the FR-HIPS has been defined.

The full application of the model indicates that emissions of some key species (such as dibenzodioxins and PAH) are actually lower for the TV with the FR enclosure than for the TV with the NFR enclosure. This has direct repercussions for the assessment of the environmental impact of the FR TV relative to that of the NFR TV4.

Finally, when considering the risk associated with the use of flame retardants it is important to also consider the risk associated with fires. Based on the indepth analysis of available fire statistics conducted as a part of this study, it has been estimated that as many as 160 people may die each year in Europe as a direct result of TV fires and as many as 2000 may be injured in the same period.

The technology to achieve a high level of fire safety has been commercially available for many years. Based on the results of this study, a return to the use of materials with high levels of fire safety is clearly needed to provide adequate protection to European consumers.

Report and references

Full details of the project results are available in SP Report 2000:13.

1. M. De Poortere, C. Schonbach, and M. Simonson, "The Fire Safety of TV Set Enclosure Materials, A Survey of European Statistics", Fire and Materials, 24, 53-60 (2000).
2. P. Blomqvist, L. Rosell and M. Simonson, "Emissions from Fires part I: Fire retarded and non-Fire retarded TV-sets", submitted to Fire Technology 2002.
   P. Blomqvist, L. Rosell and M. Simonson, "Emissions from Fires part II: Simulated Room Fires", submitted to Fire Technology 2002.
3. M. Simonson, C. Tullin and H. Stripple, "Fire-LCA study of TV sets with V0 and HB enclosure material", Chemosphere, 46, 737-744, 2002.