not be subject to general and extensive burning. Sampling-plan rejects have flammability characteristics superior to 90 percent of the fabric in general use two years ago. Fabrics that can pass more stringent sampling plans exist, but not in quantities adequate to meet sleepwear requirements. The target level here was set to admit the required variety of fabrics, with consideration being given to the capacity growth that could be anticipated in the period between the standard's promulgation and its date of full effectiveness. It is known that the flammability characteristics of a fabric can be compromised by the thread material and construction used in garment seams and by the presence of trim materials. These problems can arise directly from flammability of the added materials or the mechanical or synergistic effects. The garment prototype test addresses these problems by requiring testing of specimens involving major seams and trim items of non-trivial dimensions. The number of specimens required is larger, but there also is an allowance for a larger number of failures (except in the case of the seven-inch average char length limit). It is unusual to allow these failures in a prototype test, but this approach is necessary here because the garments must be made from production fabric that may be imperfect and the garment cannot be required to be better than the fabric. Finally, production garments are tested using three samples of five specimens each and the same specimen pass-fail criteria. The specimens are obtained from the seamed areas involving the longest seam in the garment. As many as three of the fifteen specimens are permitted to fail before rejection occurs; the absolute character of the average-char-length requirement remains intact. The failure allowance again reflects the accumulation of effects and the availability of materials. Note, however, that most of the garment consists of the plain fabric that was previously required to pass the most stringent of the tests. Protection against the most serious of the garment flammability hazards the large-area burn thus is still provided; in fact, it is enhanced to the extent that the seam tests constitute further validation of fabric characteristics. The result of this three-tier sampling approach is a dramatic improvement in sleepwear flammability with a minor cost increment due to the testing burden per se. Increasing availability of suitable fabrics permits an impending extension of standards coverage to sleepwear in the 7-14 size range. Although details of approach will differ according to circumstances, the children's sleepwear standard can serve as a model for future mandatory standards in several areas of consumer product safety. NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 411, Fire Safety Research, Proceedings of a Symposium Held at NBS, Gaithersburg, Md., August 22, 1973, (Issued November 1974) HUMAN ACTIVITY PATTERNS AND INJURY SEVERITY IN FIRE INCIDENTS INVOLVING APPAREL Laura Baker Buchbinder1 The Cotton Foundation, Memphis, Tennessee Activities immediately preceding an apparel fire are identified, classified and related to the age/sex groups involved. The level of severity of burn injuries resulting from apparel fire accidents is discussed and is related to the type of activity causing the accident. The relationships defined in the study indicate the importance of the human behavioral aspects of a fire accident and aid in defining types of remedial action likely to be effective in reducing human loss due to fabric fires. Key words: Accident patterns; apparel; apparel fires; burn injury; It has already been noted that burn accidents result from the interaction of a number of environmental, human and physical factors. The activity of the victim, the ignition source, the involvement of flammable materials, including flammable liquids, and the reaction of the victim to an accidental fire are all variables which may determine whether the victim suffers little or no burn injury or severe burns over much of his body. In order to gain a complete understanding of the total burn problem and to place the various factors leading to a burn injury in proper perspective, it is necessary to understand the interrelationships of all of the factors in a fire accident. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify patterns in these variables, activity, reaction, and garment parameters, and relate them to each other and to the severity of the injury incurred. This paper will deal primarily with two of the accident variables--activity of the victim and the level of injury severity. 2. STUDY DESCRIPTION Eleven hundred twenty-six (1,126) cases from the National Bureau of Standards' FFACTS data base2 met the criteria for this study which were: Apparel was involved 2. Total area of body burned was given 3. Information on the activity or the reaction of the victim was given. Because of the extremely detailed information required, it was necessary to go back to the original case histories, gather the appropriate information on activities, reactions and garment involvement, and classify and code the information. The major classifications are shown in table 1. They fall into 3 groups: those dealing with activities, those dealing with the reaction of the victim and those dealing with the garment involved. The author is currently a research associate at the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. where the work reported here was performed. 2At the time of this study, the FFACTS data base contained 1,964 cases. Accidents in the study were divided into four major categories which attempt to define the general type of accident by the physical mechanisms involved in it. Table 2 shows the number of accidents in each category. Fifty-seven percent of the cases in the study involved no flammable liquids, gases, or explosives; 35 percent did involve flammable liquids; and 7 percent involved gas or explosives. There were only 12 cases which involved high voltage electricity. The first group is the one most affected by fabric flammability standards. The effectiveness of fabric flammability standards in preventing injury in the last three types of accidents is much less likely since flammable liquids will burn regardless of the fabric and the primary hazard from explosions is usually directed at exposed skin areas. The secondary level of classification specifies the general type of activity the victim was engaged in before the accident. As can be seen in table 2, the most frequent activities for all types of accidents were: The kinds of activities the victims were engaged in varied with the general accident type. For example, in accidents not involving flammable liquids or gases, "using fire" and "playing with an ignition source" were the two most frequent activities. When flammable liquids were involved, "using flammable liquids" was the largest group, accounting for one-third of the cases. Fifty-three percent of the accidents involving flammable gases or explosives happened as the victim was starting a fire--most of these as he lighted a match in a gas-filled room or attempted to light a malfunctioning furnace or gas water heater. Table 3 shows the number of accidents for males and females in six age groups. When compared with the distribution of these age groups in the general population, the 0-5, 6-10 and over 65 age groups are overrepresented, and the other groups somewhat under-represented. There were an equal number of males and females in the 0-10 age group, but males outnumbered females in the groups from 11-65. Only in the over 65 group did women outnumber males. Fire accident patterns seem to be strongly related to the sex of the victim. While 55 percent of the victims in the cases studied were male, 81 percent of the accidents involving flammable liquids had male victims. Males were the victims in 73 percent of the accidents involving flammable gases, and all 12 of the victims were males in accidents involving high voltage electricity. Females, on the other hand, accounted for 62 percent of the accidents involving none of the above intermediary materials. Results shown in table 4 indicate that diversification of hazardous activities between the sexes begins at an early age. In the 0-5 group, playing with matches was the major activity leading to clothing ignition for both males and females, but in subsequent age groups, accident patterns reflect the traditionally different activity patterns of the two sexes. Flammable liquid involvement was the dominant pattern in "pre-ignition" activities for males 6-65, with almost 70 percent of the accidents to males between the ages of 11 and 20 involving flammable liquids. Females, however, incurred more of a hazard from direct contact with an ignition source in activities involving ranges, space heaters and other open fires. Males over 65 seemed prone to accidents resulting from lighting or smoking cigarettes and elderly females were especially susceptible to garment ignition as they were using kitchen ranges. 3.2. Injury Severity Having discussed patterns in activities preceding a burn accident, let's turn our attention to the injury resulting from these accidents. severity of a burn injury is dependent upon several factors: 1. 2. 3. The The area of the burn--that is, the percent of the total area of the The thickness of the burn--that is, whether it is superficial in- |