This text offers broad coverage of the many facets of industrial plastics, including the latest environmental issues in plastics recycling. Included are well-illustrated laboratory activities related to all major topics and are appropriate for various types of equipment. Each chapter includes a vocabulary list and series of questions to aid in student comprehension. Included are well-illustrated laboratory activities related to all major topics, and each chapter includes a vocabulary list, series of questions.

This report does not seek to single out synthetic polymers as a special case. It aims to provide an overview of the whole subject of combustion toxicity and threat to life, whilst supplying specific information on the most frequently encountered polymeric materials, and combustion products such as dioxins which have received high levels of media attention. An additional indexed section containing several hundred abstracts from the Rapra Polymer Library database provides useful references for further reading.

"The bulk of this book consists of six case studies of major fires through which Wallace attempts to create sentiment against plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and for fire safety regulation--much as Rachel Carson did for pesticides in Silent Spring. Wallace does convince the reader that existing combustion tests, standards, fire and building codes, code enforcement, emergency services, public agencies, and private companies send out false assurances, and that neither firefighters nor the public are adequately protected against very toxic or fatal fumes from burning plastics. Her model of a successful resolution is the New York State Building Code, passed in 1986. The book is only a partially successful synthesis of technical and popular material;"--Library journal.