Fire Safety Journal 31 (1998) 363—364 Book Review Flammability Handbook for Plastics, by Carlos J. Hilado, 1998. Technomic Publishing, Lancaster PA, USA, 326 pp. ISBN 1566766516. $169.96, 5th edition; hardbound. The latest edition of Hilado’s handbook comes in nine chapters: (1) materials for the plastics industry; (2) decomposition, combustion and propagation; (3) fire response characteristics; (4) flammability tests; (5) prevention, inhibition and extinguishment; (6) market acceptance criteria; (7) flammability and product liability; (8) flammability and environmental concerns; and (9) commercial fire, smoke and smolder retardants. These nine chapters quite fully cover the breadth of issues of concern with polymer flammability. The depth, however, is somewhat small. For instance, the first (materials) chapters contains only marketing references, whereas one might expect to find information on polymer science. The next few chapters provide data on polymer thermochemical behavior and the testing thereof. Results are collected primarily from ASTM engineering flammability tests. Development chemists normally study polymer characteristics first by thermal analysis methods, only later progressing to evaluating their creations by means of engineering flammability tests. Thus, it is curious that there is no discussion of thermal analysis methods and only one small table of decomposition temperatures. The engineering test methods discussed are mostly only ASTM and other US tests. A fair number of foreign test methods are listed in name and number, but nothing about them is explained. Also, absent is any discussion of ISO and IEC test methods. Outside the US, certainly ISO and IEC methods would be considered of prime importance, so it is unfortunate that these are not explained, nor are data from them provided. The tabular data that are provided tend to be from older tests, such as the OSU calorimeter or the Arapahoe smoke chamber. One most curious inclusion is some otherwise unexplained toxicity data from the ‘‘Polish Fire Safety Centre Method’’. Flame retardants are discussed on a very simple level aimed at technicians, as indeed, is the rest of this book. Any environmental issues associated with flame retardants (which have been an active, highly polarized area of debate in Europe, and of some interest in the US) are given a very terse presentation, without discussion of any of the controversies. Overall, the utility of this handbook should be viewed in the context of its intended audience. A first-cut, skimming-the-surface approach is appropriate to technicians’ usage. The Hilado handbook presents such a useful introduction, at least 0379-7112/98/$ — See front matter ( 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 9 - 7 1 1 2 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 2 5 - 3 364 Book Review / Fire Safety Journal 31 (1998) 363—364 for technicians based in the US. For this audience, the drawbacks are twofold: (1) there are zero illustrations of any kind in this volume. In educational material for technicians, the opposite approach is generally taken, of teaching largely through illustrations. (2) The price is rather steep for a small tome which is not particularly densely packed with information. V. Babrauskas