3. Flame-retardant compounds

The first plastics were discovered towards the end of the 19th century, but their use didn't become widespread until after the Second World War. Unlike wood, which mankind has used since the dawn of time, and whose danger we have assimilated, the combustibility of plastics has not penetrated the collective unconscious. As a result, people have little or no suspicion of these by-products, which are similar in structure to candles. This has led to a number of dramatic accidents, such as the fire in a dance hall decorated with expanded polystyrene sheets in St-Laurent-du-Pont in 1970, which killed 160 people. Since then, legislators have taken an interest...