The ongoing fires ravaging Los Angeles, U.S., have killed at least 25 people and burned more than 12,000 buildings. Many of the structures destroyed were homes, mansions of the rich and famous and middle-class homes alike. Irrespective of the wealth of their owners, most homes destroyed likely had one thing in common: plastic. As Mongabay […]
  • Shortstack@reddthat.com
    17·
    22 days ago

    Well, that’s not something I considered before. Damn.

    Rob Wilson, a homeowner in Flagstaff, Arizona, whose house survived a fire in 2022, told Wicker: “We thought we were the lucky ones.” But even after cleaning the surfaces of his house of soot and residue, it continued to smell weird, and their blood tests revealed abnormally low white blood cell counts. Professional testing showed toxic levels of chemicals including acrolein, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, hydrogen chloride and nitrogen dioxide. It also found that the polyurethane insulation in the walls likely started breaking down at high temperatures and was a possible source of contamination.

    I guess the only solution is to go Amish and only use wood and cotton

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
      7·
      21 days ago

      A lot of plastics used in construction start outgassing all kinds of fun toxic stuff at around 60 C. It gets worse as temperatures rise.

      Plastic is shit. Don’t use it for insulation or anything else for that matter.