ACADEMIA Letters

PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the

“European approach” be considered a good example for
other countries?
Gianluca Sarti, Reagens S.p.A.
Marco Piana, PVC4Cables

PVC is an extraordinary and versatile resin, used in a large range of articles in building and
construction (B&C), such as profiles, pipes, flooring, cables etc. One of the keys of the suc-
cess of PVC articles in B&C along the sixties and the seventies has been its remarkable fire
performance. In fact, PVC has a low ignitability, a low flammability, a high ease of extinction,
a low tendency to spread fire, but moreover a low heat release rate (HRR). Particularly the heat
released by the article and its peak can be considered a measure of the intensity of the fire,
and this can make the difference if people can escape unharmed before the fire becomes too
large [1,2,3]. Thus, flame retardants and polymers with an intrinsic flame retardancy as PVC,
CPVC, PEF, PTFE etc. play a fundamental role in fire safety. Often halogenated polymers
are used where other polymers fail. Despite these extraordinary properties, in the European
Union (EU) some PVC articles suffered the competition of other “plastics”. Particularly PVC
compounds for cables lost 26% of market share, from 65% in 2000 down to 39% in 2019,
with an estimated 35% in 2023 [4]. This happened mainly because PVC compounds have
been under attack for some of its “claimed negative issues”: PVC emits black dense smokes,
its combustion products are toxic, and its fumes are acidic.
Smoke kills in fires more than fire itself. In fact, most of the fatalities in fires are caused by
the inhalation of toxic smoke. But the “big toxic killer in smokes” is carbon monoxide (CO)
and, after flashover (i.e., when the fire becomes too big to be extinguished), every polymer
releases about 20% of its weight as CO [1, 5, 6]. Therefore, PVC burning does not release
more toxic fumes than other polymers. Furthermore, the fatalities due to inhalation are a direct

Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

1
consequence of the fact that the fire has reached the flashover. Therefore, deaths due to smoke
inhalation are an indirect consequence of an elsewhere failure.
The smoke obscuration impedes people to escape uninjured from the fire scenario and to
be found by rescuers. Therefore, the measure of the smoke production from articles is another
key factor in fire safety. But does PVC release more smoke than other polymers? Not really.
PVC burns less and it has in its chemistry all the weapons to reduce smokes, easily reaching
the best classes in terms of smoke emission [7, 21].
Regarding the smoke acidity, most “fire scientists” consider it an ancillary measure in fire
safety. In fact, studies show clearly that tenability is driven mostly by narcoleptic substances
like CO or HCN rather than by HCl [7, 8]. This means that CO or HCN reach the concentration
impeding you to exit unharmed from the fire scenario before HCl or other irritant gases. That
is because PVC articles burn later and in a real fire scenario HCl decays quickly, absorbed by
surrounding materials, washed away by water or trapped by fillers in the PVC compound [5,
9].
Despite all these considerations, in the European Union (EU), according to Regulation
(EU) N°305/2011 (Construction Product Regulation, or CPR), cables permanently installed
in buildings must be classified also for the acidity of the gases released during their combustion
(table 1 and 2).

PVC cables are in the worst class for acidity, a3, because no PVC compound has been
found capable of reaching the best classes a1 or a2 yet (table 2). Therefore, halogen free ca-
bles have replaced them in those locations where the class a1 or a2 are required. Furthermore,
in the EU in 2017 there were some attempts to introduce the additional classification for tox-
icity for all building and construction products [10]. When adopted, the acidity classification
can lead to a priori exclusion of PVC, just because PVC. The strategy of our competitors’ plas-
tics has been precise: R&D, innovation, new products, the use of the innovation “up” inside
technical committees, and the dissemination of the innovation “down” to the public opinion.
This strategy has been a winning strategy and it reflects the success of the new halogen-free

Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

2
cables in the EU market in the period 2000 – 2019. In the past the research on PVC fire be-
haviour and on novel additives for getting down smoke and smoke acidity has been scarce.
This kind of research and its dissemination “up” and “down” can avoid the decline of PVC in
some specific fields. In this context, some Italian compounders, supported by PVC4cables,
are carrying out a new research in low smoke acidity PVC cables. PVC4cables is the Euro-
pean Council of Vinyl Manufacturers’ (ECVM) platform dedicated to the PVC cables value
chain. Some data of this research have been presented in several conferences between 2017
and 2022, particularly in AMI cables 2019, AMI cables 2020, 2021 and 2022 and AMI formu-
lation 2021 [11-21]. CPR requires that acidity is indirectly assessed performing the technical
standard EN 60754-2. The test apparatus of EN 60754-2 is a tube furnace where the sample
is introduced and burnt for 30 minutes in isothermal conditions at temperatures between 935
°C and 965 °C. The smokes are collected in two bubbling devices and pH and conductivity
are measured. Table 2 gives the additional classification for acidity according to EN 13501-6,
indirectly assessed by pH and conductivity measurements, performing EN 60754-2: a1 is the
best class, a3 is the worst.

What has emerged from this research is that new PVC cables with an extremely low smoke
acidity are available on the market and they are capable to reach the best classes in terms
of reaction to fire and flaming droplets, B2ca and d0 and one of the best in term of smoke
emission, s1b [19, 21].
The critical point remains the additional classification for acidity. Even though the new
cables reach an extremely low level of acidity, 3.80 pH and 13,6 microS/mm [18, 20], these
values are not enough to match the class a2 or a1. But the research of Italian compounders
has shown that the introduction of a different thermal profile in EN 60754-2 can bring values
close to a1 [11-15, 17-19]. In fact, the severe thermal profile of EN 60754-2, isothermal at
temperature between 935 °C and 965 °C, mimicking the condition of a fully developed fire
after flashover, hinders acid scavengers in PVC compounds in their action to trap HCl. In-
troducing the thermal profile of the EN 60754-1 in EN 60754-2 (heating regime, 40 minutes
to 800°C and 20 minutes in isothermal at 800°C), we can get higher pH and lower conduc-
tivities. In fact, the speed of evolution of HCl during the combustion of the cables affects a

Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

3
lot the behaviour of acid scavengers, commonly used in low smoke acidity compounds. HCl
is a gas and acid scavengers are solid substances trying to trap it. Therefore, acid scavengers
must be particularly quick in their interaction before HCl flies away. Consequently, the test
temperature and the presence or absence of heating regimes are the main causes affecting the
“efficiency” of HCl scavengers. In figure I the dramatic loss of efficiency of a potent acid
scavenger AS1-6B is reported [15]. The higher the temperature, the lower the efficiency.
Al(OH)3 (ATH), as inert acid scavenger, does not show any variation. Picture 2 [20] shows
how big the discrepancies can be in pH and conductivities, when we perform EN 60754-2
and EN 60754-2 with the thermal profile of EN 60754-1. The compound not containing acid
scavengers behaves “bad” at both thermal profiles. This concept was highlighted in the past by
other research teams. In fact, Chandler and others, in 1987 noted how different temperature
regimes affected the quantity of released HCl [9]. We need to highlight how this research is
an applied research, and therefore not available yet to the fire community.
All these considerations point out how it is necessary to change the standard EN 60754-2
with the introduction of the thermal profile of the EN 60754-1 for reaching the class a1 and
a2 using PVC compounds, but, as we know, any change of standards will not be simple and
immediate.
So the conclusion is the following and we come back to the question in the title of the
article: can the “European approach” be considered a good example for other countries? The
answer is obviously not, because the introduction of acidity classification, performing a small-
scale test, cannot predict the actual concentration of HCl in a real fire scenario, and acidity
classification has brought and will bring to a reduction of the use of PVC cables in B&C.

Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

4
Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

5
Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

6
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Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

7
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Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.

8
 and Halogen free compounds”, AMI Cables 2022, conference proceeding.

Academia Letters, May 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Gianluca Sarti, gianluca.sarti@fastwebnet.it

Citation: Sarti, G., Piana, M. (2022). PVC in cables for building and construction. Can the “European
approach” be considered a good example for other countries? Academia Letters, Article 5453.