Combustibility of Plastics

Although many people may want to know how plastics bum, the question of how plastics bum is only a part of a much larger question: "How does anything bum?" To examine the burning process of plastics in isolation does not make any sense and may lend credence to the idea that plastics are a special material with a special hazard. An analogy would be to study how "carbonless" carbon paper bums and then to relate the burning characteristics and combustion products of this single type of paper to all other types of paper, and even to other wood products and to wood itself. The testing of one type of product from a very large family of products that are physically similar, and the relation of these test results to all other members of that family, has no basis in the scientific method. Those who do so are ignorant of science-unless they have some hidden reason for wanting to ascribe certain properties to all related materials.