Citation

Blais MS. Fire Technol. 2021; 57(2): 503-505.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10694-020-01088-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The corresponding author of the letter has questioned the independence and ethics of the testing laboratory and authors. Southwest Research Institute is a nonprofit research institute of which the Department of Fire Technology is on quarter of one of the 10 operating divisions. The experiments described here represent 0.01% of the annual operating budget of the institute and less than 3% of the Department of Fire Technology. Fire Tech does literally thousands of experiments every year, primarily for industry to ensure their products meet fire safety codes, regulations, and standards. The authors disclosed the funding source for this series of experiments in the journal article. It is important to note that the North American Fire Retardant Association and the American Chemistry Council had no control of the experimental design or the results reported in the journal article. As a direct corollary, the letter author makes income from organizations that oppose the use flame retardants in consumer products, manufacturers of mineral wool, as well as litigation against manufacturers of consumer products that result in injuries from fire. We would ask Mr. Babrauskus to disclose any Conflicts of Interest he may have related to the issues he raises.

To address each point in the letter, confounding variables in the paper including the flat screen TV. These rooms represent those most commonly found in lower income housing, i.e. older, smaller homes, and apartments as well as many hotel rooms. A recent study done by Dr. Marc Janssen used real-estate listing photos to look at Flat panel television installation. This story shows furniture load as well and TV mounting methods. This was used as instruction for furniture and TV location in a standard room burn configuration. Other factors affecting the test results were held as constant as possible and were not intended to influence the outcome...

Language: en