The Effect of Cow Urine and its Components as a Fire Retardant on Cotton Fabric

The purpose of this experiment was to test whether cow urine and its individual components had any effect on the fire retardant properties of cotton fabric. The components of cow urine tested were urea, potassium, phosphate, and sodium chloride. This experiment had real world relevance in that it explored the area of less hazardous and less deadly fire retardants. Modern fire retardants are known to cause cancer and other serious health problems, this experiment was an attempt to find an organic fire retardant that would replace the main-stream carcinogenic fire retardants (Bryan Walsh).

In this experiment, five different treatments were used, along with a control, to test their fire retardant properties. The treated pieces of fabric were tested for the time embers appeared and the total consumption time. Along with the analysis of variance, ANOVA, statistical test, the observations further concluded that the ammonium phosphate was the best fire retardant, followed by sodium chloride and potassium chloride.

Research Done By:

Catherine Buchanan
Warren Mott High School

John Drabik
Warren Woods Tower High School

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