Researchers Create Dairy-Based Flame Retardant
Fabric Flame Tests Flame-resistance fabrics. From left to right: casein-treated cotton, casein-treated polyester, casein-treated cotton-polyester blend. Federico Carosio , Alessandro Di Blasio , Fabio Cuttica , Jenny Alongi , and Giulio Malucelli Asbestos was once a miracle substance. An abundant rock, it breaks into fibers that mix easily with plaster, fabrics, tiles, and construction materials, making them all extraordinarily fire resistant. But those fibers don't stop there. When tiles break or insulation crumbles, boilers shatter or dust accumulates, those asbestos fibers crawl their way into people's lungs, where they cause cancer and other diseases. Researchers at the Polytechnic University in Turin, Italy, have discovered a safer fireproofing method. Whey, a byproduct of cheese production, contains casein, which in turn contains a lot of phosphate groups. Phosphate groups are important because when they catch fire, they quickly...