§ Lord Howie of Troonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to introduce regulations to limit the generation of toxic smoke from ignited construction products by including them in Approved Document B of the Building Regulations. [H L474]
§ Lord WhittyThe Government do not have any intention at present to introduce regulations to limit the generation of toxic smoke from ignited construction products. A review of Approved Document B (fire safety) has just been completed, and the 2000 edition of this document will be published in January. This document makes reference to a number of parts of BS 476 (fire tests on building materials and structures) that are considered to give acceptable methods of tests. The key parameters usually considered in these fire tests are the heat release rate and flame spread but not smoke production. These in themselves will also have an effect on smoke production.
Although there are no proposals at present to introduce smoke production tests as part of the performance standard for regulatory purposes, the use of a fire engineering approach is recognised in Approved Document B and the fact that products have a low smoke emissivity could be used as part of the justification for a particular engineering solution. Further revisions to Approved Document B will be necessary to take account of future harmonised European standards and smoke production will be one of the many issues that will be looked at.