One of the UK’s leading insulation providers is calling on the government to provide more guidance on smoke emissions from building products when exposed to fire.
The move comes on the back of the publication of The Smoke Report from Rockwool, which is based on 26 interviews with stakeholders, including contributions from the fire and rescue service, building control officers, scientists and the insurance industry.
The report makes three key recommendations:
“Our research shows there is a huge of confusion about the interpretation of the fire safety regulations,” said Paula Bateman, Rockwool’s corporate affairs director. “This is putting people’s lives at risk and we hope the government will act to help protect local residents and workers by issuing new guidance on the smoke emissions of building products.
“We do not want new regulations that will burden the construction industry, she added. “Smoke emissions will have to be declared by building product manufacturers from July next year; we’re calling on government to put this information into an easily digestible format to help the industry carry on creating homes that are safe.”
Rockwool has commissioned the report because from July 2013, all construction products covered by a harmonised European product standard will have to be CE marked under the Construction Products Regulation.
Commenting on the survey, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government told info4fire:
"The European Classification system for the reaction-to-fire characteristics of construction products has been in place for some years now. In 2003 the Department commissioned research to look into the potential to use the additional declaration of smoke opacity in building regulations.
"There is nothing in the Rockwool Smoke Report that would justify making any change to the existing provisions of the Building Regulations, or that there is any need [to] extend the existing guidance which has been in place since 2006."
Rockwool commissioned an independent political research company to conduct 26 in-depth qualitative interviews with key stakeholders connected to fire safety in commercial and residential properties, to test attitudes towards fire safety building regulations. Interviews were conducted by telephone or face-to-face between 20 February and 30 March 2012.
