ISO DIS 26367-2

Description / Abstract: The primary focus of this International Standard is to present a methodology for the compilation of relevant data in a standardised manner appropriate for use in contingency planning or the assessment of the adverse environmental impact of uncontrolled fires, including fires in commercial and domestic premises, unenclosed commercial sites, agricultural storage sites, wildland and forest fires, as well as fires involving road, rail and maritime transport systems.

This International Standard provides procedures for compiling and reporting the information needed to assess environmental damage caused by a fire incident. It includes a methodology for conducting a site reconnaissance, establishing data quality objectives, designing sampling programmes, and it provides a standardised method for reporting the results of the compilation and findings of the analyses for use in contingency planning or for the assessment of the potential adverse environmental impact of a specific fire incident. It does not include specific instruction on sampling and analysis of fire effluents.

This International Standard focuses on the fire effluents that are environmentally significant, including pollutants causing short-term effects (e.g. pollutants causing biotope damage and components of smog) and long-term effects (e.g. persistent organic pollutants, POPs). This document refers to standards for environmental quality assessment procedures; however, it does not include specific sampling methodologies and analysis requirements. Sampling and analysis are the focus of a future document in this series.

It is not possible to treat all potential pollutants that could be found in fire effluents in this single document, therefore a list of those pollutants specifically addressed in this International Standard is given below:

a) Pollutants with short-term effects: halogenated acids (HXs), metals, nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulates, and sulphur oxides (SOx).

b) Pollutants with long-term effects: metals, particulates, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polyhalogenated dioxins and furans (PXDDs/PXDFs).

NOTE 1 The reporting template provided in Annex E of this International Standard gives proposals of additional potential pollutants and indicators to include in the compilation. Not all of the pollutants and indicators in Annex E must be considered for every fire site, and others may apply.

NOTE 2 The scope of this International Standard does not include direct acute toxicity issues on humans that are covered by other existing ISO/TC92/SC3 standards such as ISO 13344 [4] and ISO 13571 [5].