A Time Series Analysis of the Adjusted Closing Stock Prices

Table of Contents 1. ?Introduction 2. ?literature review 3. ?Introduction 4. ?Methodology INTRODUCTION Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation which provides Internet-related products and services, including Internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while both attended Stanford University. Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September  4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August  19, 2004. The company is now listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol .The company's mission statement from the outset was â€Å"to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful†, and the company's unofficial slogan is â€Å"Don’t be evil†. In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California. Objectives 1. To fit a multiple regression model to a data set comprising the put, call and strike prices of a stock belonging to a company listed on a known index. 2. To use the BSM Model to which provides a mathematical science for the pricing and hedging of European Call and Put options as the American Options market 3.We wanted to analyze the data for Google option prices from the S;P index over the past and present time periods in order to be able to forecast the future. Literature Review 1. Put call parity In financial mathematics, put–call parity defines a relationship between the price of a European call option and European put option in a frictionless market —both with the identical strike price and expiry, and the underlying being a liquid asset. In the absence of liquidity, the existence of a forward contract suffices.Put–call parity requires minimal assumptions and thus does not require assumptions such as those of Black–Scholes or other commonly used financial models. 2. Black-Scholes Model The Black–Schole s model or Black–Scholes-Merton is a mathematical model of a financial market containing certain derivative investment instruments. From the model, one can deduce the Black–Scholes formula, which gives the price of European-style options. The formula led to a boom in options trading and legitimized scientifically the activities of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and other options markets around the world. t is widely used by options market participants Methodology The data being analyzed consisted of daily past prices of silver traded on the S;P index since 14th May to 22 September 2012. The group was required to obtain data sets containing put, call and strike prices the data set of option expiring in more than 30 days but less than 100 The data was obtained from marketwatch. com on 14th May 2012 copied to excel and imported to R, with the stock price at $605. 23. The group chose options expiring on 22th September 2012 for the 1st data set, with 94 days to expiry.A n average of the Bid and Ask prices of both the call and put options was then calculated as shown below. The values in the columns labeled â€Å"call†; â€Å"put â€Å"were calculated as an average of the corresponding Bid ; Ask call and put prices respectively. A number of statistical methods were applied to analyze the data on the R program. We first started by importing the data to the R program; below is a table showing the data. Strike | call| put| Strikesq| Adj Close| 295| 311. 75| 0. 45| 87025| 605. 23| 300| 306. 45| 0. 425| 90000| 613. 66| 305| 303. 1| 0. 45| 93025| 609. 15| 310| 297. 6| 0. 75| 96100| 612. 79| 315| 291. 4| 0. 5| 99225| 607. 55| 320| 286. 6| 0. 55| 102400| 596. 97| 325| 282. 75| 0. 6| 105625| 611. 02| 330| 277. 85| 0. 65| 108900| 607. 26| 335| 273. 4| 0. 775| 112225| 604. 43| 340| 266. 6| 0. 7| 115600| 604. 85| 345| 262. 1| 0. 75| 119025| 614. 98| 350| 256. 7| 0. 8| 122500| 615. 47| 355| 253. 3| 0. 875| 126025| 609. 72| 360| 248. 35| 0. 875| 129600| 601. 27| 365| 243. 45| 0. 925| 133225| 597. 6| 370| 237. 35| 1| 136900| 596. 06| 375| 232. 4| 1. 05| 140625| 599. 3| 380| 227. 45| 1. 05| 144400| 607. 45| 385| 222. 55| 1. 2| 148225| 609. 57| 390| 218. 85| 1. 325| 152100| 606. 7| 395| 212. 45| 1. 45| 156025| 624. 6| 400| 207. 9| 1. 525| 160000| 651. 01| 405| 202. 95| 1. 6| 164025| 635. 96| 410| 198. 15| 1. 65| 168100| 626. 86| 415| 193. 15| 1. 825| 172225| 630. 84| 420| 188. 4| 2. 025| 176400| 632. 32| 425| 183. 6| 2. 25| 180625| 635. 15| 430| 180| 2. 375| 184900| 642. 62| 435| 175. 25| 2. 55| 189225| 646. 92| 440| 170. 3| 2. 9| 193600| 641. 24| 445| 164. 6| 3. 025| 198025| 648. 41| 450| 160. 9| 3. 3| 202500| 655. 76| 455| 155. 15| 3. 55| 207025| 647. 02| 460| 150. 6| 3. 85| 211600| 649. 33| 465| 146. 8| 4. 05| 216225| 642. 59| 470| 141. 15| 4. 55| 220900| 646. 05| 75| 137. 65| 4. 95| 225625| 639. 98| 480| 132. 05| 5. 35| 230400| 633. 49| 485| 128. 5| 5. 8| 235225| 633. 98| 490| 123. 45| 6. 2| 240100| 625. 04| 495| 118. 65| 6. 75| 2 45025| 621. 13| 500| 114. 1| 7. 4| 250000| 615. 99| 505| 110. 75| 7. 95| 255025| 617. 78| 510| 105. 65| 8. 5| 260100| 605. 15| 515| 101. 35| 9. 45| 265225| 600. 25| 520| 98| 10. 25| 270400| 607. 14| 525| 93. 15| 11. 1| 275625| 606. 8| 530| 89. 55| 11. 95| 280900| 604. 96| 535| 85. 15| 13. 05| 286225| 614. 25| 540| 80. 6| 14. 15| 291600| 621. 25| 545| 76. 85| 15. 3| 297025| 622. 4| 550| 72. 9| 16. 35| 302500| 618. 25| 555| 69. 5| 17. | 308025| 618. 39| 560| 66. 05| 19. 2| 313600| 609. 31| 565| 62. 8| 20. 75| 319225| 609. 9| 570| 59. 15| 22. 45| 324900| 606. 11| 575| 56. 5| 24. 05| 330625| 607. 94| 580| 52. 75| 26| 336400| 614| 585| 49. 7| 27. 85| 342225| 604. 64| 590| 46. 7| 29. 6| 348100| 606. 52| 595| 43. 9| 31. 9| 354025| 605. 56| 600| 40. 95| 34. 35| 360000| 609. 76| 605| 38. 45| 36. 7| 366025| 612. 2| 610| 36. 1| 38. 85| 372100| 605. 91| 615| 33. 55| 41. 35| 378225| 611. 46| 620| 31. 05| 44. 15| 384400| 609. 85| 625| 29. 5| 46. 9| 390625| 606. 77| 630| 27. 35| 49. 75| 396900| 60 9. 09| 635| 25. 3| 52. 95| 403225| 596. 33| 40| 23. 2| 56| 409600| 585. 11| 645| 21. 6| 59. 2| 416025| 580. 83| 650| 19. 95| 62. 65| 422500| 580. 11| 655| 18. 6| 66. 15| 429025| 577. 69| 660| 16. 85| 70. 1| 435600| 579. 98| 665| 15. 6| 73. 95| 442225| 568. 1| 670| 14. 4| 77. 55| 448900| 569. 49| 675| 13. 3| 81. 35| 455625| 580. 93| 680| 12. 25| 85. 55| 462400| 585. 52| 685| 11. 05| 88. 25| 469225| 585. 99| 690| 10. 05| 93. 4| 476100| 639. 57| 695| 9. 55| 96. 45| 483025| 632. 91| 700| 8. 45| 102. 25| 490000| 628. 58| 705| 7. 75| 105. 25| 497025| 624. 99| 710| 7. 1| 110. 65| 504100| 629. 64| 715| 6. 75| 114. 75| 511225| 625. 96| 720| 5. 95| 119. 5| 518400| 623. 14| 725| 5. 65| 122. 65| 525625| 622. 46| 730| 5. 05| 128. 5| 532900| 650. 02| 735| 4. 55| 131. 95| 540225| 659. 01| 740| 4. 25| 137. 6| 547600| 668. 28| 745| 3. 95| 142. 35| 555025| 665. 41| 750| 3. 5| 147| 562500| 645. 9| 755| 3. 25| 151. 7| 570025| 642. 4| 760| 2. 975| 155. 95| 577600| 639. 7| 765| 2. 725| 161. 4| 585225| 64 0. 25| 770| 2. 525| 166. 45| 592900| 633. 14| 775| 2. 2| 169. 9| 600625| 629. 7| 780| 2. 125| 174. 75| 608400| 625. 82| 785| 1. 975| 180. 55| 616225| 630. 37| 790| 1. 775| 185. 45| 624100| 621. 83| 795| 1. 65| 190. 35| 632025| 625. 96| 800| 1. 525| 195. 15| 640000| 619. 4| 810| 1. 35| 205. 05| 656100| 618. 07| 820| 1. 175| 214. 95| 672400| 625. 63| 830| 0. 975| 224. 75| 688900| 625. 39| 840| 0. 825| 234. 95| 705600| 627. 42| 850| 0. 725| 244| 722500| 616. 05| 860| 0. 65| 254. 25| 739600| 623. 39| 870| 0. 525| 265| 756900| 623. 77| 880| 0. 475| 274. 55| 774400| 625. 65| 890| 0. 425| 284. 6| 792100| 620. 36| 900| 0. 375| 293. 45| 810000| 613. 77| 910| 0. 375| 304. 7| 828100| 599. 39| 920| 0. 3| 314. 45| 846400| 582. 93| 930| 0. 3| 323. 3| 864900| 588. 19| 940| 0. 275| 333. 25| 883600| 563| 950| 0. 25| 343. 25| 902500| 570. 11| 960| 0. 25| 353. 25| 921600| 580| 970| 0. 25| 363. 25| 940900| 580. 94| Fitting a Multiple regression Model From the results shown? 0=605. 997, ? 1=0. 995, ? 2= -0. 9979. The value of the stock at that point in time wasSt=605. 23. If significant, the estimate ? 2 was to be equated to -e-r (T-t) and the value for r equated. In this formula, T-t is the time to expiry of the options (94 days in our case) and r is the interest on a daily basis (short rate), which was then supposed to be annualized. Since all the estimates were significant, ? 2= -0. 9979=-e-r(94) r=-ln0. 997994=2. 236391*10-5 Annualizing r; r=2. 236391*10-5*250=0. 05592275=5. 2275%, which is the risk. The formula call(Ct)= 605. 997+0. 995put(Pt)-0. 9979(Strike(Kt)) was the model we used to derive values of call prices in relation to the multiple regression model. A plot of these call and strike options is shown below; If significant, the estimate ? 2 was to be equated to -e-r (T-t) and the value for r equated. In this formula, T-t is the time to expiry of the options (94 days in our case) and r is the interest on a daily basis (short rate), which was then supposed to be annuali zed. PROCEDURE FOR FITTING Finally we drew a graph of Call against Strike and this was the graph obtained.The code and resulting graph are shown below, GRAPH FOR CALL AGAINST STRIKE BSM MODEL METHODS To fit the BSM Model and generate theoretical call prices, we obtained and truncated historical data from finance. yahoo. com as shown in the column labeled ‘Adj. Close’ The code snapshot below created a function â€Å"BSM73† We then computed the BSM73 by using the given the data, annualized interest rate (r), stock price, strike price and days to maturity generates the theoretical call prices. The proposed model to be fitted to fit the regression model CtSt= ? 0+? 1KSt+? 2K2St+ ? t main purpose is so as to determine the values of ? ,? 1 ; ? 2 Procedure From the results shown, we get ? 0=1. 313950 , ? 1=-1. 959886, ? 2= 0. 001195. The value of the stock at that point in time was St=605. 23. PLOT BSM CALL PRICE (Yt) AGAINST STRIKE PRICES For data analysis conducted fo r September 2012 options with T-t=94 days and r=5. 922%, the proposed model can be used in option pricing. It can be concluded from the analysis that for options with a longer time to expiry and a smaller interest rate, the proposed model prices the options more accurately than the BSM model in the price ranges where most options are traded. TIME SERIES ANALYSISThe theoretical model for a time financial time series data is given by; Xt = Trend + ARMA + GARCH + WN Where WN is the white noise in the data. We assumed that the GARCH component is equal to 0 We proceeded to investigate whether indeed the data at hand had trend in it. We used the following tools in our investigation * Box plots * ACF * Histogram * Plotting the data Time series of the data. Summary of strike price data. Box plots ACF OF GARCH NOISE Code: ;y=log(strike) ; d=diff(y) ; garch=d^2 ; acf(garch,lag=100,main=†ACF of Garch Noise†) Histogram Code: hist(strike,main=†Histogram of ADJ Closing pricesâ⠂¬ )De-trending the data After having confirmed that the data contained linear trend, we proceeded to de-trend the data by; 1. Finding the natural logarithm of the data ;y=log(strike) 2. Differencing the data ;d=diff(y) We confirmed that the data the data was actually stationery at this point by using the following techniques; * Finding the ACF of the de-trended data and Plotting the de-trended data FIT ARMA (p, q) We found that an ARIMA (2, 2, 0) was the best model for our data FORECASTING We used the ARIMA (2,2,0) model to predict the adjusted closing share prices for the next 10 days:

How does Miller initially present Rodolpho? Essay

Miller initially presents Rodolpho through the use of description, dialogue, stage directions, structure and punctuation. Miller uses these techniques to present Rodolpho as a transgressive, ‘unsicilian’ feminine character. Miller initially presents Rodolpho as a transgressive character through the use of dialogue. Miller attempts to draw the audience’s attention towards Rodolpho’s appearance when the character Catherine states; â€Å"How come he’s so dark and you’re so light†. Miller contrasts Rodolpho’s appearance with a traditional Sicilian man, Marco, suggesting that Rodolpho is ‘an outsider’ in Sicilian culture. Miller’s notion is emphasised when Catherine, again, childishly states; â€Å"He’s practically blond!†, the repetitive physical description suggests Miller’s desire for to audience to be drawn to Rodolpho’s ‘Unsicilian’ characteristic, furthered even more by Catherine’s dramatic reaction to Rodolpho’s appearance, possibly indicating Rodolpho is the first blonde man she has seen, despite living in the overpopulated town of Red Hooke. Miller presents Rodolpho through the use of stage directions. Miller possibly compares Rodolpho’s feminine characteristic to Catherine’s when â€Å"He [Rodolpho] helps B set out the coffee]†, compared to â€Å"[Catherine] continues ladling out the plates†. In a patriarchal society, this behaviour was frowned upon, much to Eddie’s dismay. Miller could be using this comparison as prolepsis to when Eddie shouts â€Å"He’s not right† later on in the play, with the quote symbolising Rodolpho’s feminine character. Another stage direction associated with Rodolpho; â€Å"(Smiling)† suggests Miller is content with presenting Rodolpho as a feminine character, as Miller appears to present emotion with connotations of feminine behaviour, much like Rodolpho is consistently presented. Miller here utilises the technique of dramatic irony, the audience understands that Rodolpho’s feminine behaviour is frowned upon by Eddie, whilst Rodolpho himself is unaware, because of this tension builds up and one can argue that Rodolpho’s role in this play is to build tension. Whilst Rodolpho’s appearance differs from a traditional Sicilian man, Miller presents the initial impression that Rodolpho’s behaviour is indecorous; through the use of structure and stage directions. Rodolpho’s utterance length is consistently longer than Marco’s, and even the patriarch Eddie. In contrast, Marco, an example of a true Sicilian man speaks short Mono-syllabic sentences. Not only does the logorrheic Rodolpho have a long utterance length, Miller often punctuates Rodolpho’s sentences with exclamation marks .This subtle use of punctuation highlights Rodolpho’s ‘emotion’ and ‘passion’, arguably a stereotypical Italian quality but when contrasted to the emotionless â€Å"suspicious, quite-voiced† Marco, an example of transgressive behaviour. Miller confirms Rodolpho’s behaviour is indecorous in Sicilian culture when Eddies is â€Å"coming to address Marco more and more†, the patriarch of the house does not approve of Rodolpho’s behaviour but in comparison accepts the directly contrasting character, Marco. To conclude, Rodolpho is initially presented as a transgressive character through the use of dialogue, description, structure, punctuation and finally stage directions. Miller possibly choses to contrast Rodolpho with Marco to highlight the differences between American and Sicilian culture, Rodolpho’s behaviours maybe perceived as wrong in Sicilian culture but acceptable in an American society. On the other hand, Miller maybe equally trying to educate the, mainly American, audience about Sicilian culture. I think that the use of description was especially effective at indicating to the audience that Rodolpho was ‘the outsider’ and possibly the centre of any drama. I do not think that Miller’s use of punctuation and stage directions are effective for a modern day audience because in an ‘Americanised’ society, Rodolpho’s behaviour is acceptable whereas when the play was shown to its original audience, Miller’s use of stage directions would have been more effective. Overall, though, I think Miller has presented Miller initially as a transgressive character, and has done so very effectively.

A Dirty Job Chapter 27

27 BITCH'S BREW Lily had been looking all night for a way to approach Minty Fresh. She'd made eye contact with him a dozen times over the course of the evening, and smiled, but with the atmosphere of dread that fell over the room she was having trouble thinking of an opening line. Finally, when an Oprah movie of the week came on the television and everyone gathered around to watch the media diva beat Paul Winfield to death with a steam iron, Minty went to the breakfast bar and started flipping through his day planner, and Lily made her move. â€Å"So, checking your appointments?† she said. â€Å"You must be feeling optimistic about how things will go.† He shook his head. â€Å"Not really.† Lily was smitten. He was beautiful and morose – like a great brown man-gift from the gods. â€Å"How bad can it be?† Lily said, pulling the appointment book out of his hand and flipping through the pages. She stopped on today's date. â€Å"Why is Asher's name in here?† she asked. Minty hung his head. â€Å"He said you've known all about us for a while.† â€Å"Yeah, but – † She looked at the name again and the realization of what she was seeing was like a punch in the chest. â€Å"This is that book? This is your date book for that?† Minty nodded slowly, not looking at her. â€Å"When did this name show up?† Lily asked. â€Å"It wasn't there an hour ago.† â€Å"Well, fucksocks,† she said, sitting down on the bar stool next to the big man. â€Å"Yeah,† said Minty Fresh. He put his arm around her shoulders. With Charlie pulling on the legs of the bobcat guy (who was doing some impressive screaming considering he had prototype vocal cords) and the squirrel people dog-piling onto the Boston terrier, they were eventually able to extricate their lieutenant from the jaws of the bug-eyed fury with only a few snags in his Beefeater's costume. â€Å"Down, Bummer,† Charlie said. â€Å"Just chill.† He didn't know if chill was an official dog command, but it should be. Bummer snorted and backed away from the surrounding crowd of squirrel people. â€Å"Not one of us,† said the bobcat guy, pointing at Bummer. â€Å"Not one of us.† â€Å"You shut up,† Charlie said. He pulled a beef jerky from his pocket that he'd brought for emergency rations, tore off a hunk, and held it out to Bummer. â€Å"Come on, buddy. I told the Emperor I'd look out for you.† Bummer trotted over to Charlie and took the beef jerky from him, then turned to face down the squirrel people as he chewed. The squirrel people made clicking noises and brandished their weapons. â€Å"Not one of us. Not one of us,† chanted Bob. â€Å"Stop that,† Charlie said. â€Å"You can't get a mob chant going, Bob, you're the only one with a voice box.† â€Å"Oh yeah.† Bob let his chanting trail off. â€Å"Well, he's not one of us,† he added in his defense. â€Å"He is now,† Charlie said. To Bummer he said, â€Å"Can you lead us to the Underworld?† Bummer looked up at Charlie as if he knew exactly what was being asked of him, but if he was going to find the strength to carry on, he was going to need the other half of that beef jerky. Charlie gave it to him and Bummer immediately jumped up to a higher, four-foot pipe, stopped, barked, then took off down the pipe. â€Å"Follow him,† Charlie said. After an hour following Bummer through the sewers, the pipes gave way to tunnels that got bigger as they moved along. Soon they were moving in caves, with high ceilings and stalactites in the ceiling that glowed in various colors, illuminating their way with a dull, shadowy light. Charlie had read enough about the geology of the area to know that these caves were not natural to the city. He guessed that they were somewhere under the financial district, which was mostly built on Gold Rush landfill, so there would be nothing as old-looking or as solid as these caves. Bummer kept on, leading them down one fork or another without the slightest hesitation, until suddenly the cave opened up into a massive grotto. The chamber was so large that it simply swallowed up Charlie's flashlight and headlamp beams, but the ceiling, which was several hundred feet high, was lined with the luminous stalactites that reflected red, green, and purple in a mirror-smooth black lake. In the middle of the lake, probably two hundred yards away, stood a great black sailing ship – tall-masted like a Spanish galleon – red, pulsating light coming from the cabin windows in the rear, a single lantern lighting the deck. Charlie had heard that whole ships had been buried in the debris during the Gold Rush, but they wouldn't have been left preserved like this. Things had changed, these caves were all the result of the Underworld rising – and he realized that this was just a hint of what was going to happen to the City if the Underworlders took over. Bummer barked and the sharp report echoed around the grotto, sending a cloud of bats into the air. Charlie saw movement on the deck of the ship, the blue-black outline of a woman, and he knew that Bummer had led them to the right place. Charlie handed his flashlight to Bob and set his sword-cane on the cave floor. He drew the Desert Eagle from the shoulder holster, checked that there was a round in the chamber, cocked the hammer, then reset the safety and reholstered the pistol. â€Å"We're going to need a boat,† Charlie said to Bob. â€Å"See if you guys can find something we can make a raft from.† The bobcat guy started down the shore with Charlie's flashlight, scanning the rocks for useful flotsam. Bummer growled, tossed his head like he had ear mites or perhaps to indicate that he thought Charlie was insane, and ran out into the lake. Fifty yards away he was still only in water up to his shoulder. Charlie looked at the black ship and realized that it was sitting way, way too high out of the water – that, in fact, it was sitting with its hull on the bottom in only about six inches of water. â€Å"Uh, Bob,† Charlie said. â€Å"Forget the boat. We're walking. Everyone quiet.† He unsheathed his sword and sloshed onward. As they approached the ship they could make out details in its construction. The railings were fashioned from leg bones lashed together, the mooring cleats were human pelvises. The lantern on the deck was, in fact, a human skull. Charlie wasn't exactly sure how his powers as Luminatus were going to manifest themselves, but as they reached the hull of the ship he found himself very much wishing it would happen soon, and that levitation would be one of the powers. â€Å"We're fucked,† said Bob, looking up at the black hull curving above them. â€Å"We're not fucked,† Charlie said. â€Å"We just need someone to climb up there and throw us a rope.† There was some milling around amid the squirrel people, then a lone figure stepped out of the little crowd – this one appeared to be a nineteenth-century French dandy with the head of a monitor lizard. His outfit – the ruffles and the coat – actually reminded Charlie of pictures that Lily had shown him of Charles Baudelaire. â€Å"You can do it?† Charlie asked the lizard guy. He held out his hands and lifted one foot out of the water. Squirrel paws. Charlie lifted the lizard guy as high as he could up to the hull, and the little creature caught ahold in the black wood, then scurried up the side of the ship and over the gunwale. Minutes passed, and Charlie found himself listening hard for some hint as to what was going on above. When the thick rope splashed down next to him, he leapt two feet in the air and barely contained blasting out a full-blown man-scream. â€Å"Nice,† said Bob. â€Å"You first, then,† Charlie said, testing the rope to see if it would hold his weight. He waited until the bobcat guy was about three feet over his head before he tucked the sword-cane down inside the Lexan plate strapped over his back and started the climb himself. By the time he was three-quarters of the way up the rope, he felt as if his biceps were going to pop like water balloons and he entwined his motocross boot into the rope to rest. As if being granted a second wind by the gods, his biceps relaxed and when he resumed climbing he felt as if he might really be gaining his power as the Luminatus. When he reached the railing, he grabbed one of the bone mooring cleats and swung himself up until he sat straddling the rail. He swung around and his headlamp caught the black shine in her eyes. She was holding the bobcat guy like an ear of corn, her claw driven through his skull, pinning his jaw shut. There was flesh and goo glowing dull red, running down her face and over her breasts as she tore another bite out of the Beefeater. â€Å"Want some, lover?† she said. â€Å"Tastes like ham.† At the breakfast bar in Charlie's apartment, Lily said, â€Å"Shouldn't we tell them?† â€Å"They don't all know about us. About this.† Minty held the date book. â€Å"Just Audrey.† â€Å"Then shouldn't we tell her?† Minty looked at Audrey, who was sitting on the couch entwined in a sleepy pile with Charlie's sister and one of the hellhounds, looking very content. â€Å"No, I don't think that would serve any purpose right now.† â€Å"He's a good guy,† Lily said. She snatched a paper towel off the roll on the counter and dabbed her eyes before her mascara went raccoon on her again. â€Å"I know,† Minty said. â€Å"He's my friend.† As he said it, he felt a tug on his pant leg. He looked down to where Sophie was staring up at him. â€Å"Hey, do you have a car?† she asked. â€Å"Yes, I do, Sophie.† â€Å"Can we go for a ride?† Without any hesitation, Charlie whipped the sword-cane out of his back and snapped it down on the Morrigan's wrist. She lost her grip on the bobcat guy, who bolted, screaming, across the deck and over the opposite railing. The Morrigan grabbed the sword-cane and tried to wrench it from Charlie's grasp. He let her – pulled the sword free, then drove it into her solar plexus so hard that his fist connected with her ribs and the blade came out her back, sinking into the wooden hull of the lifeboat she was reclining against. For a split second his face was an inch from hers. â€Å"Miss me?† she asked. He rolled away just as she slashed at him. He got his forearm up just in time to deflect the blow away from his face, the thick Lexan plate on his forearm stopping the claws from taking off his hand. She lunged for him, but the sword kept her pinned to the boat. Charlie ran down the deck away from her as she screeched in anger. He saw light coming from a door that must have led to the cabin at the aft of the ship – that same red glow – and he realized that it had to be coming from the soul vessels. Rachel's soul could still be in there. He was only a step from the hatch when the giant raven dropped in front of him and spread her wings out across the deck, as if trying to block the whole end of the ship. He backpedaled and drew the Desert Eagle from the shoulder holster. He tried to hold it steady as he clicked off the safety. The Raven snapped at him and he leapt back. The beak then pulled back, changed, bubbled into the face of a woman – but the wings and talons remained in bird form. â€Å"New Meat,† said Macha. â€Å"How brave of you to come here.† Charlie pulled the trigger. Flame shot a foot out of the barrel and he felt as if someone had hit him in the palm with a hammer. He thought he had aimed right between her eyes, but the bullet had ripped through her neck, taking half of the black flesh with it. Her head lolled to the side and the raven body flailed its wings at him. Charlie fell backward onto the deck, but pulled the pistol up and fired again as the raven was coming down on him. This one caught her in the center of the chest and sent her flying backward, up onto the cabin roof. The ringing in his ears felt like someone had driven tuning forks into his head and hit them with drumsticks – a long, painful, high-pitched wail. He barely heard the shriek from his left as another Morrigan dropped out of the rigging behind him. He rolled to the railing and brought the gun up just as she slashed at his face. The gun and his forearm pad absorbed most of the blow, but the Desert Eagle was knocked from his grasp and slid down the deck. Charlie did a somersault to his feet and ran after the gun. Nemain flicked her claws at his back and he heard the sizzle as the poison strafed the Lexan pad down his spine and burned onto the deck on either side of him. He dove for the pistol and tried to roll and come up with it pointed at his attacker, but he misjudged and came up with the back of his knees against the bone railing. She leapt, claws first, and hit him in the chest just as he fired the Desert Eagle and he was driven backward over the railing. He hit flat on the water. The air exploded from his body and he felt like he'd been hit by a bus. He couldn't breathe, but he could see, he could feel his limbs, and after a couple of seconds of gasping, he finally caught a breath. â€Å"So, how's it going so far?† asked the bobcat guy, about two feet from Charlie's head. â€Å"Good,† Charlie said. â€Å"They're running scared.† There was a big chunk bitten out of the middle of Bob's torso, and his Beefeater uniform was in tatters, but otherwise he seemed in good spirits. He was holding the Desert Eagle cradled in his arms like a baby. â€Å"You'll likely need this. That last shot connected, by the way. You took off about half of her skull.† â€Å"Good,† Charlie said, still having a little trouble catching his breath. He felt a searing pain in his chest and thought he might have broken a rib. He sat up and looked at his chest plate. The Morrigan's claws had raked the front of it, but in one spot he could see where a claw had slipped under the plate and into his chest. He wasn't bleeding badly, but he was bleeding, and it hurt like hell. â€Å"Are they still coming?† â€Å"Not the two you shot. We don't know where the one you stuck with your sword went.† â€Å"I don't know if I can make it up that rope again,† Charlie said. â€Å"That may not be a _roblem,† Bob said. He was looking up to the ceiling of the grotto, where a whirlwind of squeaking bats was spiraling around the mast, but above them was beating the wings of another creature altogether. Charlie took the pistol from Bob and climbed to his feet, nearly fell, then steadied himself and backed away from the hull of the ship. The squirrel people scattered around him. Bummer let loose with a fusillade of angry yapping. The demon hit the water about thirty feet away. Charlie felt a scream rising in his throat but fought it down. The thing was nearly ten feet tall, with a wingspan of thirty feet. Its head was as big as a beer keg, and it appeared to have the shape and horns of a bull, except for the jaws, which were predatory, lined with teeth, like a cross between a shark and a lion. Its eyes were gleaming green. â€Å"Soul stealer,† it growled. It folded its wings into two high points behind its back, and stepped toward Charlie. â€Å"Well, that would be you, wouldn't it?† Charlie said, a little breathless still. â€Å"I'm the Luminatus.† The demon stopped. Charlie took the hesitation to bring up the pistol and fire. The shot took the demon high in the shoulder and spun him to the side. He turned back and roared. Charlie could smell the creature's breath, like rotting meat, wash over him. He backed up and fired again, his hand numb now from the recoil of the big pistol. The shot knocked the demon back a step. There was shrill cheering from above. Charlie fired again and again. The slugs opened craters in the demon's chest. He wavered, then fell to his knees. Charlie aimed and pulled the trigger again. The gun clicked. Charlie backed up a few more steps and tried to remember what Minty had shown him about reloading. He managed to hit a button that released the clip from the pistol, which plopped into the water. Then he unsnapped one of the pouches under his arm to retrieve an extra clip. It slipped out and fell into the lake as well. Bob and a couple of the squirrel people splashed forward and started diving beneath the water, looking for the clip. The demon roared again, unfurled his wings, and, in one great flap, pulled himself to his feet. Charlie unsnapped the second clip and, with his hands shaking, managed to fit it into the bottom of the Desert Eagle. The demon crouched, as if to leap. Charlie jacked a shell into the chamber and fired at the same time. The demon fell forward as the huge slug took a chunk out of his thigh. â€Å"Well done, Meat!† came a female voice from above. Charlie looked up quickly, but then back to the bullheaded demon, who was on his feet again. Then he braced his wrist and fired, and again, walking forward, pumping bullets into the demon's chest with each step, feeling any second as if his wrist would just shatter into pieces from the recoil, until the hammer clicked on an empty chamber. He stopped, just five feet away from the demon when it fell over, facefirst into the water. Charlie dropped the Desert Eagle and fell to his knees. The grotto seemed to be tilting before him, his vision tunneling down. The Morrigan landed on three sides of him. Each had a glowing soul vessel in her claw and was rubbing it on her wounds. â€Å"That was excellent, lover,† said the raven woman standing closest to the fallen demon. Charlie recognized her from the alley. The stab wound his sword had made in her stomach healed over as he watched. She kicked the bullheaded demon's body. â€Å"See, I told you that guns suck.† â€Å"That was well done, Meat,† said the one to Charlie's right. Her neck was still knitting back together. She was the one he'd blasted up onto the cabin roof. â€Å"You guys do bounce back with a certain Wile E. Coyote charm,† Charlie said. He grinned, feeling drunk now, like he was watching all this from another place. â€Å"He's so sweet,† said the hand-job harpy. â€Å"I could just eat him up.† â€Å"Sounds good to me,† said the Morrigan to his left, whose head was still a little lopsided. Charlie saw the venom dripping from her claws, then looked to the wound below his chest plate. â€Å"Yes, darling,† said hand job, â€Å"I'm afraid Nemain did nick you. You really are quite the warrior to have lasted this long.† â€Å"I'm the Luminatus,† Charlie said. The Morrigan laughed, the one in front of Charlie did a little dance step. As she did, the bullheaded demon lifted his head from the water. â€Å"I'm the Luminatus,† said the demon, black goo and water running between his teeth as he spoke. The Morrigan stopped dancing, grabbed one of the demon's horns, then pulled his head back. â€Å"You think?† she said. Then she plunged her claws into the demon's throat. He rolled and threw her off, sending her sailing twenty feet in the air to smash into the hull of the ship. The Morrigan behind Charlie patted his head as she passed. â€Å"We'll be right with you, darling. I'm Macha, by the way, and we are the Luminatus – or we will be in a minute.† The Morrigan fell on the bullheaded demon, taking great chunks of flesh and bone off his body with each slash of their talons. Two took to the air and swept in, taking swipes at the demon, who flailed at them, sometimes connecting, but too weakened from the gunshots to fight effectively. In two minutes it was finished, and most of the flesh had been flayed from it. Macha held his head by the horns like she was holding the handlebars of a motorcycle, even as the demon's jaws continued to snap at the air. â€Å"Your turn, soul stealer,† Macha said. â€Å"Yeah, your turn,† said Nemain, baring her claws. Macha held the demon head out in front of her, driving it at Charlie. He backed away as the teeth snapped inches from his face. â€Å"Wait a minute,† said Babd. The other two stopped and turned to their sister, who stood over what was left of the demon's corpse. â€Å"We never got to finish.† She took one step before something hit her like a ball of darkness, knocking her out of sight. Charlie looked at the demon head coming at him, then there was a loud smack and Macha was yanked to the side as if she'd had a bungee cord attached to her ankle. The screeching started again and Charlie could see the Morrigan being whipped around in the darkness, splashing, and chaos – he couldn't follow what was happening. His eyes wouldn't focus. He looked to Nemain, who was now coming at him with her claws dripping venom. A small hand appeared at the edge of his vision and the Morrigan's head exploded into what looked like a thousand stars. Charlie looked to where the hand had appeared before his eyes. â€Å"Hi, Daddy,† Sophie said. â€Å"Hi, baby,† Charlie said. Now he could see what was happening – the hellhounds were tearing at the Morrigan. One of them broke, jumped into the air and unfurled her wings, then dove at Sophie, screeching. Sophie raised her hand as if she was waving bye-bye and the Morrigan vaporized into a spray of black goo. The souls, thousands of them, that she had consumed over the millennia, floated into the air, red lights that circled the grotto, making the whole huge chamber appear to have been frozen in the middle of a fireworks display. â€Å"You shouldn't be here, honey,† Charlie said. â€Å"Yes, I should,† Sophie said. â€Å"I had to fix this, send them all back. I'm the Luminatus.† â€Å"You†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah,† she said matter-of-factly, in that Master of All Death and Darkness voice that is so irritating in a six-year-old. The hellhounds were both on the remaining Morrigan now, tearing her in half as Charlie watched. â€Å"No, honey,† Charlie said. Sophie raised her hand and Babd was vaporized like the others – the captured souls rose like embers from a bonfire. â€Å"Let's go home, Daddy,† Sophie said. â€Å"No,† Charlie said, barely able to hold up his head. â€Å"We have something we have to get.† He lurched forward and one of the hellhounds was there to brace him. The whole army of squirrel people was coming around the bow of the ship, each carrying a glowing soul vessel he'd retrieved from the ship's cabin. â€Å"Is this it?† Sophie said. She took a CD from Bob and handed it to Charlie. He turned it in his hands and hugged it to his chest. â€Å"You know what this is, honey?† â€Å"Yeah. Let's go home, Daddy.† Charlie fell over the back of Alvin. Sophie and the squirrel people steadied him until they were out of the Underworld. Minty Fresh carried Charlie to the car. A doctor had come and gone. When Charlie came to he was on his bed at home and Audrey was wiping his forehead with a damp cloth. â€Å"Hi,† he said. â€Å"Hi,† Audrey said. â€Å"Did Sophie tell you?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"They grow up so fast,† Charlie said. â€Å"Yeah.† Audrey smiled. â€Å"I got this.† He reached behind his chest plate and pulled out the Sarah McLachlan CD that pulsated with red light. Audrey nodded and reached out for the disc. â€Å"Let's put that over here where you can keep an eye on it.† As soon as her fingers touched the plastic case the light went out and Audrey shuddered. â€Å"Oh my,† she said. â€Å"Audrey.† Charlie tried to sit up, but was forced back down by the pain. â€Å"Ouch. Audrey, what happened? Did they get it? Did they take her soul?† She was looking at her chest, then looked up at Charlie, tears in her eyes. â€Å"No, Charlie, it's me,† she said. â€Å"But you had touched that before, that night in the pantry. Why didn't it happen then?† â€Å"I guess I wasn't ready then.† Charlie took her hand and squeezed it, then squeezed it much harder than he intended as a wave of pain washed through him. â€Å"Goddammit,† he said. He was panting now, breathing like he might hyperventilate. â€Å"I thought it was all dark, Audrey. All the spiritual stuff was spooky. You made me see.† â€Å"I'm glad,† Audrey said. â€Å"Makes me think I should have slept with a poet so I could have understood the way the world can be distilled into words.† â€Å"Yes. I think you have the soul of a poet, Charlie.† â€Å"I should have made love with a painter, too, so I could feel the wave of a brushstroke, so I could absorb her colors and textures and really see.† â€Å"Yes,† Audrey said, brushing at his hair with her fingers. â€Å"You have such a wonderful imagination.† â€Å"I think,† said Charlie, his voice going higher as he breathed harder, â€Å"I should have bedded a scientist so I would understand the mechanics of the world, felt them right down to my spine.† â€Å"Yes, so you could feel the world,† Audrey said. â€Å"With big tits,† Charlie added, his back arching in pain. â€Å"Of course, baby,† Audrey said. â€Å"I love you, Audrey.† â€Å"I know, Charlie. I love you, too.† Then Charlie Asher, Beta Male, husband to Rachel, brother to Jane, father to Sophie (the Luminatus, who held dominion over Death), beloved of Audrey, Death Merchant and purveyor of fine vintage clothing and accessories, took his last breath, and died. Audrey looked up to see Sophie come into the room. â€Å"He's gone, Sophie.† Sophie put her hand on Charlie's forehead. â€Å"Bye, Daddy,† she said. EPILOGUE THE GIRLS Things settled in the City of Two Bridges, and all the dark gods that had been rising to erupt out over the world remembered their place and returned to their domains deep in the Underworld. Jane and Cassie were married in a civil ceremony that was dissolved and sanctioned a half-dozen times over the years. Nevertheless, they were happy and there was always laughter in their home. Sophie went home to live with her Aunties Jane and Cassandra. She would grow to be a tall and beautiful woman, and eventually take her place as the Luminatus, but until then, she went to school and played with her puppies and had a fairly wonderful time as she waited for her daddy to come get her. THE SHOPKEEPERS While Minty Fresh had believed in the adage that in every moment there is a crisis, his belief had been somewhat academic until he started seeing Lily Severo, when it became very practical indeed. Life jumped up several steps for him on the interesting scale, to the point where the Death Merchant part of his existence became the more prosaic of his pursuits. They became renowned around town, the giant in pastels always in company with the short, Gothic chef, but the City really stood up and took notice when they opened up the Jazz and Gourmet Pizza Place in North Beach in the building that had once housed Asher's Secondhand. As for Ray Macy, Inspector Rivera set him up with a lady pawnbroker from the Fillmore named Carrie Lang, and they hit it off almost immediately, having in common a love of detective movies and handguns, as well as a deep mistrust for most of humanity. Ray fell deeply in love, and true to his Beta Male nature, was doggedly loyal to her, although he always secretly suspected her of being a serial killer. RIVERA Inspector Alphonse Rivera has spent most of his life trying to change his life. He'd worked in a half-dozen different police departments, in a dozen different capacities, and although he was very good at being a cop, he always seemed to be trying to get out. After the debacle with the Death Merchants and the strange, unexplainable things that had gone on around it, he was simply exhausted. There had been a brief time when he'd been able to leave police work and open a rare-book store, and he felt as if that might have been the only time he had ever truly been happy. Now, at age forty-nine, he was ready to try it again: take an early retirement and just read and live in a calm, unevent-filled world of books. So he was somewhat pleased when, two weeks after the death of Charlie Asher, he went to his mailbox to find a substantial envelope that could only be a book. It was like an omen, he thought as he sat down at his kitchen table to open the package. It was a book – what looked like a very rare and bizarre children's book. He opened it and turned to the first chapter. So Now You're Death: Here's What You'll Need. THE EMPEROR The Emperor enjoyed a happy reunion with his troops and went on to rule benevolently over San Francisco to the end of his days. For leading Charlie into the Underworld, and for his boundless courage, the Luminatus gave Bummer the strength and durability of a hellhound. It would fall to the Emperor to explain how his now all-black companion – while he never weighed more than seven pounds soaking wet – could outrun a cheetah and chew the tires off a Toyota. AUDREY Audrey continued her work at the Buddhist center and did costuming for a local theater group, but she also took a volunteer job with hospice, where she helped people to the other side as she had done for so long in Tibet. The hospice position also, however, gave her access to bodies that had been recently vacated by their souls, and she used these opportunities to cycle the squirrel people back into the human flow of birth and rebirth. And for a while, there were remarkable instances of people recovering from terminal illness in the City, as she exercised the p'howa of undying. She didn't give up her work with the squirrel people altogether, however, as it was a skill she had come to over a long time and a lot of work, and it could still be extraordinarily rewarding. At least that's how she was feeling as she looked over her latest masterpiece in the meditation room of the Three Jewels Buddhist Center. He had the face of a crocodile – sixty-eight spiked teeth, and eyes that gleamed like black glass beads. His hands were the claws of a raptor, the wicked black nails encrusted with dried blood. His feet were webbed like those of a waterbird, with claws for digging prey from the mud. He wore a purple silk robe, trimmed in sable, and a matching hat with a wizard's star embroidered on it in gold thread. â€Å"It's only temporary, until we find someone,† Audrey said. â€Å"But take my word for it, you look great.† â€Å"No, I don't. I'm only fourteen inches tall.† â€Å"Yeah, but I gave you a ten-inch schlong.† He opened his robe and looked down. â€Å"Wow, would you look at that,† Charlie said. â€Å"Nice.†

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Questions - Essay Example Nevertheless, it has lately been used in the making of E-Liquid for the electronic cigarettes, or the personal vaporizers.   Propylene glycol provides an exceptional combination of properties, such as not being readily reactive with some other substances. For a period of more than five decades, we find that it has been used in an extensive range of industrial and consumer applications, whereby it might be used as an agent of emulsification, humectant for the retaining of moisture or even solvent (LBERTY & SILBEY, 2009). Sodium acetate is the acetic acid’s sodium salt. There are several applications that sodium acetate are used. This is because it is a cost-effective chemical that can be used extensively. Some of its uses are application as picking agent and food addictive or even a laboratory reagent (PRESCOTT, 2006). In addition, it is a major ingredient in the portable, reusable heating packs that are

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Post Racial Society - Essay Example Since an African American male was now elected President of America, it seemed evident that race no longer had the ability to prevent or impede success for minorities; however, this belief was not necessarily valid. In his essay titled, â€Å"Post-Racialism,† writer, Sumi Cho examines the impact which President Obama’s Presidency has had on race relations: â€Å"In addition to the material retreat from race, post-racialism also levels the discursive playing field, allowing whites to oppose civil-rights remedies and advocate for race-neutral policies because society has transcended the racial moment, or civil-rights era† (p. 1594). According to Cho, the election of President Obama and the creation of a post-racialism society, allows non-minorities to assess the need for race-centered incentives for minority groups, such as affirmative action. However, as the current statistics show, minority groups have never been in more need of assistance. Although President Oba ma has succeeded as an African American male, the statistics concerning unemployment, poverty, and imprisonment, still reveal a need for equality among races in

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Immigration in the US - Essay Example People have generally developed a negative perception about assimilation over the years. Assimilation has been largely viewed as a process of wearing a fake identity. Nevertheless, assimilation has played a fundamental role in the integration of ethnic minorities in the advanced societies. In this way, social assimilation enables the ethnic minorities to achieve cultural solidarity without having to compromise upon their indigenous cultural values and norms. Pluralism, by definition is the inverse of assimilation. Ethnic pluralism is the term used for such circumstances that enable the ethnic minorities to keep their original values and sustain ethnic heterogeneity. Ethnic pluralism is misunderstood as a social process which isolates one ethnic group from the rest. A more rational way to define ethnic pluralism is definition of a particular group in a larger society. This is the reason why ethnic pluralism gives rise to a multiethnic society instead of distorting one large society into several small societies. Different ethnic groups are interlinked by the economic and political systems in the society. Although American society is by large an assimilationist society, yet pluralistic elements are quite evident at several levels in the structure of the society. Whether an individual is inclined towards assimilation or ethnic pluralism fundamentally depends upon his/her choice. People that prefer to hold ethnicity as the most prominent fac tor of identification are more of ethnic pluralists than assimilationists. Assimilation and ethnic pluralism resemble each other in that both entail numerous forms and dimensions. Several dimensions including the cultural and structural dimensions can be defined for both assimilation and ethnic pluralism. Differences among individual ethnic groups sustain in both social systems. Both assimilation and ethnic pluralism are variables for societies and groups and both occur at different

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On the Oedipus Rex - Essay Example As a result, Teiresias is painfully reminded of his blindness: â€Å"Truth is not in you – for your ears, your mind, your eyes are blind!† (Sophocles I.370). Oedipus also blames his brother-in-law Creon for treachery and secret council with the oracle. He threatens the servant to death in the situation when this servant may die even if he obeys. Jocasta who is shown as a devoted wife (she tries to comfort Oedipus and obeys all his orders) is accused of arrogance: â€Å"Leave the lady to enjoy her noble family† (Sophocles III.1070). They all forgive and remain silent, which is an indication of the severity of their grief for Oedipus: near such misfortune, their pride loses its importance. This disregard of Oedipus’s attacks is one of the tactics that help different characters withdraw from the situation of suffering. This is not the only tactic, though. Teiresias calms himself down with the acceptance of the fact that he cannot change the future. He is a servant of gods, a keeper of truth, and his inner truth gives him strength: â€Å"It is not your fate / to fall because of me. It’s up to Apollo / to make that happen. He will be enough† (Sophocles I.451-453). However, he is dissatisfied with himself, because even knowing this, he came to Oedipus: â€Å"Alas, alas! How dreadful it can be / to have wisdom when it brings no benefit / to the man possessing it† (Sophocles I.374-376). This is a typical problem of prophets in tragedy (other examples are Cassandra and Laocoon). Such popularity of the helpless prophet character may be due to the importance of the concept of fate for Greeks. Jocasta seems to suspect something from the very beginning, but she has at least two protective arguments. The first is her care for Oedipus being so sincere and unconditional that there is tempt to claim it maternal: the main thing that concerns her is always her husband’s condition, and several times she does whatever she can to calm him down, up to the

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Subvertising and advertising culture - Essay Example Subvertising is a blend of two words â€Å"subvert† and â€Å"advertising†.It is about making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements,so as to make a statement. Subverts take the form of a new image of an existing image or icon generally, in a satirical manner. It is also a meme hack and a part of social hacking or culture jamming (Posner 1982). It mimics the look and feel of the targeted ad and the viewers suddenly realize they have been duped. Their primary goal is to damage political candidates and campaigns, corporations and other targets. Subverts create cognitive dissonance by cutting through the hype  and glitz of mediated reality and, momentarily, reveals a deeper truth within." History In 1972, the logo of Richard Nixon's reelection campaign posters were subvertised with two x's in Nixon's name (as in the Exxon logo). It referred to the corporate ownership of the Republican party. In 1977, The Billboard Liberation Front, used this techniq ue in San Francisco  . After the U.S. presidential election of 2000, John Kanis, a supporter of the Republicans, designed a saying "Sore Loserman" to mock Democratic party candidates Gore-Lieberman. However, the Supreme Court, halted the process. Over the years, no large organization or brand, has managed to escape the wrath of subvertising. Examples of such targets include Ford, Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, BMW, Visa, Nike, Marlboro, Smirnoff, Absolute Vodka, Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and a horde of the other best brands in the world. Even politicians and other celebrities like Richard Nixon, George Bush, John F Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Paris Hilton have not been spared. Subvertising vs advertising (Advertising is any paid) form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor. (Subvertising refers to the) practice of making spoofs and parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The following table draws up a compar ison and a contrast of the two concepts. \Advertising Subvertising Paid form Unpaid form Non-personal in nature Non-personal in nature Promotes goods, services Depromotes goods, services Sponsor identified Unidentified Creative Destructive Promotes brand building Encourages brand killing Encourages consumption of goods and services Discourages consumption of goods and services Humorous Satiric Positive message Negative message Initiated by marketers Initiated by anti-consumerists Wide reach and long lasting appeal Wide reach but short-lived appeal Benefits outweigh disadvantages Effects doubtful Positive publicity Negative publicity Subvertising - Strengths and weaknesses Subvertising does enjoy a host of advantages. They are: 1. Attention grabbers 2. Highly creative 3. Positive intent 4. Can be used for good causes 5. Promotes sustainable consumption 6. Highly inexpensive 7. Easy to create Subvertising is popular, essentially, due to its tremendous attention grabbing effect. It sho cks the viewer into a moment of reflection and thought. Obviously, subverts are highly creative. Parody and spoofery does require a lot of brain racking and though the individual does not have to create the subvert from scratch, unless it is very creative, the spoof will miserably fail. Though the subvert is negative in nature and tone, the intent behind the act is, can be, positive. The purpose is to make the viewer think about the negative aspects of advertising and create a positive influence. Though, most or almost all the time, Subverts are used for wrong purposes or causes, at times, good cause subvertising also exists. Subverts on smoking advertisements, promoting sustainable consumption, Greenpeace initiatives are a handful of cause-related subvertising examples. Advertising, essentially, encourages limitless consumption, for purposes of sales and revenue generation. Subvertising on the contrary forces us to think of sustainable consumption in harmony with nature. Since Subv erts need only to mimic the advertisement and bring

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Laws and regulation relating to the kentucky board of embalmers and funeral directors - Essay Example A funeral establishment cannot operate unless under direct supervision by a Board licensed embalmer or funeral director and each of these Board licensed individuals cannot operate more than one establishment at any given time. Each year, a license must be issued and processed by the Board along with the applicable renewal license fee of $100. Along with this yearly renewal fee, every Board licensed embalmer and funeral director must attend a minimum of four hours in a continuing education program or programs approved by the Board. If a license has expired and failure to renew within three years of the license expiration date, the applicant pays a late fee and provides proof of attendance at the continuing education course along with passing an examination outlining the ability to pass a competency examination. It is possible for a person holding an embalmer's or funeral director's license from another state or federal district to obtain a Kentucky license provided this individual has met the same or similar requirements for a license set out in provision KRS 316.030 and pays the required fees and license renewal fees to the Board. The Board can revoke or suspend a license should there be a violation of provisions of the Board g

Religious Dissent, Discord, Settlement and Religious Essay Example for Free

Religious Dissent, Discord, Settlement and Religious Essay This section of the paper introduces the topic and the thesis. In support of the formation of the thesis, the introduction discusses a brief history of the Tudor reign, and how prior monarchies have created religious divisions within the English society. The introduction enumerates the main concerns surrounding the topics of religious dissent, discord, settlement and religious atmosphere that took place before and during the reign of Elizabeth I. The introduction also establishes the argument as to whether Elizabeth I’s solution to the religious conflict, the creation of a united church, was an important and feasible move considering the politics surrounding her reign and the pressing influence of Rome on the religious affairs of many countries, particularly in Europe. Although this would eventually lead to the formation of the Church of England and the English Reformation, it is important to examine the historical impact of Elizabeth I’s decision in terms of implementing a defined and united English church. II. The Religious Atmosphere Prior to Elizabeth II Overview Elizabeth I’s impact on the religious life in England can be attributed to the problems which she inherited; this section discusses these factors, briefly touching on the religious atmosphere during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VII and Mary I. As religion played an important role in England at that time, especially with the influence of the Roman Catholics pertaining to England’s foreign relations with Rome and other parts of Europe, the religious atmosphere prior to Elizabeth I’s reign can be observed to represent deep divisions as some groups wanted to have a different interpretation and practice of the sacred Christian texts and rituals, whereas some wanted to follow the Roman Catholic way. Although this may seem like a small problem, religion’s role in the societies of those times was critical. At that time, the Church had a strong influence on the State, and this was something upheld by previous monarchs before Elizabeth I took the throne. Certain wars sprung out because of religious conflict, and it became a pressing problem especially as before Elizabeth I had to address the re-installation of Catholicism in England under Mary I’s period. II. a Religious Atmosphere Under Henry VIII II. b Religious Atmosphere Under Mary I III. Elizabethan Reign: Dissent, Discord and Religious Settlement and Atmosphere Overview This section provides a more detailed historical approach in Elizabeth I’s religious settlement. This takes from Elizabeth I’s decision to re-establish the Church of England and break ties with Rome. This section also touches on the different acts or laws implemented at that time which would serve as steps in the implementation of the Church of England and address religious divisions in the society. This section also provides a concise but substantive background on Elizabeth I’s installation as Queen in supplement to her religious settlement. This is an important aspect of the paper as Elizabeth I’s background provides the motivation and the decision of the queen, especially in terms of her religious settlement. IV. Elizabethan England: Religion and Renaissance This section touches on the English society during the Elizabethan era. This provides a background of the religious atmosphere in the country and how, during Elizabeth I’s reign, the English society started to change. This also gives a background on how and why Elizabeth I’s period has been considered as the Golden Age of English history in which this era became a point of significant accomplishments of literature and art, in addition to the prevalence of the Protestant Reformation mindset of the people. What is interesting is that although Elizabeth I would stabilise Protestantism in England, and she would be recognised for it, this did not prevent the emergence of the English Renaissance where the Elizabethan society would adopt a more open mind towards the arts and the sciences. V. Conclusion This paper concludes with an analysis of Elizabeth I’s religious settlement and how this would serve as an important seed to the formation of the English society especially in the religious and political context. This section also summarises the aspects of religious dissent and discord, especially as to whether Elizabeth I successfully addressed the deep religious divisions in the English society; this is an important point of discussion as her religious settlement was not just aimed to address religious conflict within the country but also as a means for her to install her legitimacy and rule an era of renaissance instead of religiosity.

The Major Feminist Theoretical Perspective In Iran Sociology Essay

The Major Feminist Theoretical Perspective In Iran Sociology Essay Iranian women have fought for the equal rights throughout the 20th century. In this paper I intend to argue about feminism in the present urban communities in Iran. Iran is a vast country and discussing women situation in the rural areas makes this essay totally different. The womens movement in Iran has both expanded and transformed since the revolution. Before the revolution the liberation of women was connected to the process of secularisation. Under the Islamic Republic, however, women are increasingly making arguments for the expansion of their rights by pointing to protections under the constitution, while others are reinterpreting Shariah law. Some scholars have referred to the emergence of Islamic feminism, a term that highlights the difference of approaches that coexist within the womens movement in Iran. As a result, the terrain of womens rights is one of unprecedented cooperation among disparate groups on the one hand and severe ideological and political struggles on the o ther. In discussing these approaches in present urban areas of Iran, it is of vital importance to distinguish between three groups of women who I will talk about them. The first group is women who identify themselves as Secular feminists and are under the influence of women movement in western societies. The second group are women who try to reach equal rights for men and women but as they try to do so under the guidance of Islam and national identity, they make a distinction between themselves and western feminism which they believe will lead to corruption as there is now in the West. They can be named state feminists or Islamist feminists in Islamic Republic of Iran. Minoo Moallem writes about one of these women, Zahra Rahnavard who is one of the equal rights activists and the wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi in the recent demonstrations against government after the 2009 presidential election in Iran: Zahra Rahnavard charged the West with being a system where women are made into decorative objects. She calls upon her Muslim sisters to question what the sham civilizations have made of women, not to act like dolls, and not to display a debilitated will. She asks women to refuse to be part of the harems of the rulers and the communal harems of the streets. Her allusion to the collective appropriation of women in the streets and her rejection of unveiling have made it possible for her to think of contractual structure of the Muslim family and veiling as sites of womens agency. For Rahnavard, it is through unveiling and Westernization that Muslim women have been turned into objects to be possessed by all men in the public sphere. To resist capitalist rulers and challenge sexual objectification, she asks women to return to veiling and the Muslim family, where women are considered subjects rather than objects of the marriage contract. (2005; 185) The third group includes mostly secular educated women who are not familiar with the notions of western feminism but as a result of modernisation in Iran and under the influence of global mass Media are aware of women situation in other countries and try to simulate a modern life like the ideal type of a western woman for themselves. They have combined some traditional values of an Iranian woman and some modern values of a western woman. As Reza Ghasemi in his acclaimed novel, The Nocturnal Harmony of the Wood Orchestra, describes Iranian women in their transition to modernity: The history of invention of Modern Iranian women is like the invention of car. The difference is that the car was first a carriage with changed content (They removed the horses and replaced the engine) and then slowly the appearance changed but the modern Iranian women first changed the appearance and then when they had been looking for appropriate content, they faced the trouble So everyone as to their personal tastes and their mental demands made a combination of traditional female with modern woman which can be stand in a range of a woman wearing Chador to miniskirt. This woman asks to share in all decisions, but asks all the responsibilities from manShe asks man to work equally in home but at the same time considers the man who works in home of poor character and weakness. (1996; 86) Considering the distinction between these groups, I will argue about feminism as a political movement to gain equality and to free women from oppression in Islamic republic of Iran and the role that each group plays in obtaining this goal. Liberal Feminism: Actually in todays Iran, liberal feminism is the only perspective that can hardly breathe under the pressure of the Islamic government. This feminism always has two aspects which are against the governments will in Islamic republic of Iran. Abdee Kalantari believes that in a political theology that divides the political sphere into good and evil and sees the west as enemy (evil), feminism as a modern western movement is a threat to the whole existence of this theology (2007). In other hand, fighting for the equal rights in law usually opposes Islamic rules which are not easy to face. Hence, women movement not only has to fight with the deep traditions of Islam in the society but also to protect itself against the fundamentalist government which obtains its legitimacy from these traditions. The Islamist ideology denies women individuality, autonomy and independence and this is inside this Ideology that the key objective of Iranians womens rights activists, both secular and Islamic, became the modernization of family law and womens equal rights in matters of marriage, divorce, and child custody. Other concerned issue is domestic violence, with many articles in the feminist press describing domestic violence as both a social problem and a violation of womens rights. A third concern was womens under-representation in formal politics and the need for greater participation in parliament, the local councils, and the highest political offices. These are the reforms that both Islamist and Secular activists are still fighting to reach them. The Islamist feminist do not seek to deny the rules of law and they insist on the preservation of Islam, family and marriage even when it comes in opposition of equal rights. Their aim is to suggest a more flexible interpretation of Islam rather than the one that the government presents. This group can be criticized in the same way that Zillah R. Eisensteins has criticized the liberalism because of feminizing the private sphere and the separation they make between public and private spheres. She argues that this separation could be the basis to liberalisms downfall. As it becomes clear that liberalism is incompatible with equal rights for women, feminism will search for alternative grounds to build its agenda. This gendered separation of spheres will lead liberalism to a lack of concern with the forms of oppression that take place in the private sphere(1981) and that is the same concern that secular feminist in have in Iran. In contrast, the secular feminists work through small-scale Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) and try to develop some analyses of womens collective interests and their oppression in private as well as public life. They have noticed the issues that have been argued in the history of feminism in the west. They write about equal rights as well as body, sexuality, power, homosexuality, violence, pornography and so forth. The problem is that they cannot publish their ideas and normally internet is the only media they can use to raise their voice to be heard. There are many feminist websites that represent this group and they keep working despite the filtering of the government. (e.g. http://www.irwomen.com, http://www.meydaan.com, http://www.feministschool.com ) .Hence, the middle class urban women are the most common audiences of these activists, since the other groups access to the internet is limited. This lack of audience urges this question that whether there is a feminist women m ovement in Iran? If there is, will it stand against Repression, censorship and attacks of the fundamentalist government and even the traditions of a religious based society? As Ahmadi argues that secular feminism faces two barriers in its way, first is the framework of an Islamic republic where fundamentalists hold absolute power over certain state institutions and the other is an inside force, a from within perspective which has been needed to alter the dominant fundamentalist discourse(2006). Hence, in obtaining liberal demands of women movement in Iran is of vital importance for secular feminism to keep its unity with the Islamist feminists, since as Ahmadi elaborates it is the group that not only can expand the domain of dialogue with clerical scholars, but also are able to overcome long-term hatred toward western feminism in Cultural context of Iran (2006) These activists could has been labelled as a group of urban middle class ladies who could not be regarded as speaking for all women in Iran until the August 27th of 2006, when they launched a campaign named One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws. The aim was to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country, but what made this effort important and even a danger for the government, though the organizers of the campaign considered that its demands conform to Islamic principles, was the way they used to collect these signatures. The concept is simple and revolutionary, melding education, consciousness-raising and peaceful protest. Starting last year, women armed with petitions began to go to wherever other women gathered: schools, hair salons, doctors offices and private homes. Every woman is asked to sign. But whatever a woman decides, she receives a leaflet explaining how Irans interpretation of Islamic la w denies women full rights. The material explains how Irans divorce law makes it easy for men, and incredibly difficult for women, to leave a marriage, and how custody laws give divorced fathers sole rights to children above the age of 7.  [i]   The One Million Signatures Campaign is a new and innovative movement because it has not taken shape around one progressive and famous central figure, rather it is a broad movement, where activists visit with other women, engage in face to face discussions with them, they go home to home, and explain to each woman about womens rights. Any signature is equal to conscious these activists tried to make for women from any background and any class. Their main goal is to create a dialogue among citizens and educate them about their rights and it makes women to become sensitive to their status under the law and in society. It seems that the Consciousness raising groups are the inspiring idea of this campaign. The Idea that women should gather in small groups and give accounts of their own lives and how they became a woman and then they will understand to which extent, they share similar problems with other women with different backgrounds and ages and these problems produce by social relatio ns and institutions. As Pilcher and Whelehan argue we can consider the main success of these groups in inspiring many women to turn to feminism (2004) and that is the same success that Iranian secular feminists try to reach. They hope to involve women, not all of whom were actively involved in feminism, but all caught up in the debates of the time and seized by the urge to fight for their equal rights in law and make the process of one womans coming out of false consciousness into enlightenment, possible. The campaign success in changing the laws is comparable with NOW, (National Organization for Women) founded by betty Friedan in 1966, as both expressed not as a self-conscious political theory, but as a common sense application of pre-existing values to womens situation. As Bryson argues NOWs campaigns gained some early legal victories changing laws and could amend the United States constitution to give women equal rights which very nearly succeeded, and it has been a major force in changing attitudes to women in education, employment and the media. Despite the criticisms that later feminists made about equal rights campaigns such as NOW for focusing narrowly on formal legal and political rights which ignores economic (2003), cultural and sexual exploitation and oppression of women, I think that such campaigns are the basic steps of opening debates about other forms of oppression in the traditional and religious society and fundamentalist government of Iran that will take a position against such debates in that level. Marxism Feminism vs. Post Feminism: Since Russia has been the most powerful neighbour of Iran in the contemporary history, this country has had a great influence on the history of Iran. That is why Marxism as an ideology has the greatest effect on the history of modern Iran after Islam. Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, Classical Marxists worked within the conceptual notions laid out by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other nineteenth-century thinkers and dreamed of a society without classes as they believed that existed in USSR. These groups were an undeniable factor in the triumph of revolution, but due to vast suppressions and executions of the new Islamic government in 80s, these groups lost their power and prevalence within the society, but the Marxism discourse has still an inevitable impact on the Iranian intellectual prospect. The secular feminist as a part of Iranian intellectual discourse are not an exception. This group besides the equal rights movements has always tried to theorize the roots of patriarchy in Iran and Marxism feminism has been one of the most useful perspectives for them to do this work. Many of these theories regard classism and capitalism as a key factor which work parallel with patriarchy in womens oppression (Look at Afshar; 1983). This analysis suggests women to fight with all the displays of capitalism to free them from oppression. They criticize the new Iranian woman in her support of capitalism and the way that Iranian women present their bodies which is one of the most important areas they see as capitalism system uses to oppress woman. As Shahidi states a practical consequence of this approach to the woman question was the de-sexing of woman, clearly visible in the baggy clothes and absence of cosmetics among female activists. These women oppose the compulsory veil but believe that with or without a scarf, a woman-doll will remain the same (1994). In the contemporary history of Iran, the woman body has been the main indication of political change.  [ii]  It is an interesting point that the binary of mind/body which is traceable in western thought, present itself in Iran with the beginning of the project of modernization. Reza shah saw unveiling as one of the most important markers of Westernizing and the Islamic republic made veiling compulsory in order to make an anti-western society and in all these fundamental changes womens body has been the object of change. If the Reza shah project made many women to stay in home and even quit going to school  [iii]  the veiling did not make the modern Iranian woman who I recognized them as the third group of women who make efforts having equality with men, to leave the public sphere. They continued to work and study alongside men and they used their body especially their faces to object compulsory veiling which had tried to ignore their body. Young and older, the Iranian women d efy the Islamic hijab publicly, and confront the states Islamic body politics with a body politics of their own. The youth mock the Islamic hijab, deconstruct it, reform it, and make it succumb to their modern desires. They reveal their hair in public by pushing back their mandated headscarf, transforming it into a garment used for their beautification. Against all cultural mandates of the Islamic state, they reveal their body curves under their remodeled and modernized Islamic garb. They wear loud makeup, walk elegantly, and bring their sexuality to the public. They reject the control of their body by the state, and celebrate their womanhood by defying the Islamic hijab. Since eyes, nose and hands are the only features on show, eye make-up is applied with scientific precision and Tehran has become the nose-job capital of the world. Iranian women spend one million dollar in make-up industry every year  [iv]   Oppressing by the government and morality police, these women have been always criticised by a large group of secular feminists who believe that wearing make-up and presenting the sexual body are the representation of objectifying woman by capitalism. Ezzat Goushegir in his praise of Ariel Levys book; Female Chauvinist Pigs, writes in his personal weblog  [v]  that this is the same raunch culture in Iran that in the universal capitalist system, uses the ideas of feminism about equality and emerge women to appear as a face of capitalism in the society and by this way marginalizes the true demands of women movement. He considers Marxism as a perspective that challenges this objectification and Commodification  [vi]  . (2007) Marxist feminists believe that cosmetic surgeries and make-up industry are two effective instruments of capitalism which not only objectify women, but also make them to pay money for correcting their body image into the Ideal body of Capitalist society. They deny these things as Levy denies them to be liberating and rebellious. Levy argues that how women decide to give meaning to sex industry by producing the fake idea that presenting their sexuality would empower them (2006). I am not going to criticize this book and even I agree with Levy to some extent. The problem is that how Iranian feminists use the book and translate western feminists ideas to apply them on the totally different context. Levy in this book refer to sexist TV shows which distribute the illusion of liberation among women, shows that means the pornoization of culture for Levy (2006). It is the culture that benefits Capitalism, but how about Iran? As I mentioned the history of Iran is not the history of capitalism, it is the history of religious ideology. In Iran power is not within the bourgeois class but at least in contemporary Iran in the hands of clerics (Mullahs) who do not necessarily own economical capital. The most obvious reason for this claim is that the opposition in Iran never could blame the leaders of Islamic republic for having wealth. This is religious capital that structures the power in Iran and ironically this power agrees with secular feminists in the issue of objectification of women and two different thoughts leads to same consequences in the cultural context of Islamic Iran. If Levy talks about shows such as Girls Gone Wild in America, Iranian Women appearing in television programs will not be allowed to wear make-up because it is against Islamic law, repulsive jokes between men and women on television or radio is also prohibited  [vii]  No Magazine has the right to publish a womans face on the cover and using plastic woman models with head (even with hijab) in clothing shops is forbidden. In this cultural context a new reality has emerged in Iran, a reality created by women. The Iranian women are playing an instrumental role in the grassroots challenge to the Islamic Republic through their deconstruction of the hijab and their direct challenge of the states body politics. Challenging the Islamic dress code, they use the everyday life as the site for gaining rights and respect from the society and the state. They demand the right to live as free women. Humiliated, assaulted, and arrested randomly for being women, they have gained resilience, lost the ir fears of confronting the state, and battled the repressive social and cultural Islamic codes of conduct. Using deviance as a weapon, they are creating a reality unimagined by the architects of the Islamic Republic. Naomi Wolf in her book beauty myth has the similar idea as Levi and argues that Women should be able to adorn themselves with pretty objects when there is no question that we are not objects. She believes that they cannot be free of the beauty myth unless they can choose to use their faces and clothes and bodies as one form of self-expression out of a full range of others. She claims that public interest in a womans virginity has been replaced by public interest in the shape of her body (1991). We cannot ignore that Iranian women still live in a society that virginity is more than a public interest; it is a religious and legal rule. The rule that has been ignored by these women using solutions such as Hymenoplasty  [viii]  and this is a surprisingly hot topic in Iran. It is of vital importance to consider if any great theory which we believe in is applicable in other contexts. Wearing make-up and cosmetic surgery is kind of self-expression for Iranian woman, a self who express it self standing against the fundamental laws of ignoring her. It is a kind of resistance against the discourse of fundamentalism. Hence, Body and sexuality is the battlefield of first and third groups. Two secular groups which must be united in opposition with fundamentalism that does not believe in basic rights for women, while both these groups to some extent believe in equal rights for men and women. The ironic side of this battle is that how secular Marxist feminism and Islamist feminism with two different approaches to women issue; blame the third group which is the main potential force of fighting patriarchy, to objectification of women or in their word for acting like dolls. It is true that strong roots of tradition still exist in the third group. They do not identify themselves as feminist because what they have learnt about feminism is women who try to work and wear like men; women who make them misunderstand feminism when there is not a long history of feminism in Iran to make the idea clear for them. Although they do not identify themselves as feminists they have almost same ideas with the new genera tion of feminists in west: the third generation or wave, which its life powerfully has shaped by popular culture, particularly music, television, film and literature as they believe to fight with women oppression. Media figures represent third wave icons in their tendency to refuse to adhere to a feminist party line, but also in their resistance to comply with the types of feminine behaviour deemed compatible with media and mainstream success. (Pilcher Whelehan; 2004) In other words these women as Genz and Brabon reveal are merging notions of personal empowerment with the visual display of sexuality. These women does not manipulate their appearance to get a man on the old terms but has ideas about her life and being in control which clearly come from feminism (2009; 93). Although these Iranian women do not identify themselves as feminist but their notions of sexual freedom come directly from the Iranian feminism that has fought for women freedom and equality during the last 100 year s.  [ix]   Secular feminism has two ways to walk in. The first is to stand against this group and blame them of objectifying their femininity and the other is to stand beside them to fight against fundamentalism which is the greater force of oppression for both groups than patriarchy. In the second solution I believe that Secular feminism should try to make other women familiar with basic notions of feminism such as economical independence and equal payments and other non-radical ideas that is bearable for a society in transition to modernity and not completely modern. Secular feminist must notice that Islam as an ideaology has a great power in the life of even most of secular women. Mohanty in her article on the problem of western feminism on theorizing women issues in developing coutries, referring to Modares, criticizes feminist writings which treat Islam as an ideology separate from and outside social relations and practices, rather than a discourse which includes rules for economic, social and power relations within society (1988; 70). Hence secular feminism which is affected by the west must look over the feminism history and experiences in the west and try to match them with the cultural context of Iran. I do not believe that feminism in Iran and west has to go to the same way. Although the third wave feminism is an idea that comes after the long history of first and second wave feminism in west, the Idea of sexual power that this generation emerge is the fact that young women in Iran practice against the government every day. This practices influence is obvious by the number of morality polices that the government use to control these women. Hence, post feminism is a perspective that worth applying not only imagined as a chronological distinction between second and third wave feminism in the cultural context of Iran. This attitude in Iran must not consider as backlash but as a conjunct to the first group to be influent in Iran. Secular feminism has to satisfy thes e women who object feminist theories which failed to address their problems. Conclusion: In this essay I distinguished three groups of women who can be helpful to reach equality and freedom from oppression in the current cultural context of urban middle class women in Iran. The conjunction between secular feminists and Islamist feminists who try to find liberation through the organized movement for constitution amendment and consciousness rising is traceable. I see this trend as the most relevant perspective for Iranian society that benefits both urban and rural communities in Iran. In the second part I tried to criticize the orthodox Marxism that has a deep root in the history of Iranian intellectualism and its influence on secular feminism in Iran as well. I think that this trend will lead to a separation between secular feminist and secular women who both are fighting against the fundamentalism in Iran. Secular feminism, using the postfeminist notion of sexual power can analyze the practice of these women instead of blaming them to objectifying their sexuality. If fem inists look at postfeminism as a turn to cultural differences and not as a chronological event in the west, they can move on faster and easier in the way of freedom from fundamentalism and patriarchy as well. Notes:

Water Mist Replacement for Halon Extinguishers

Water Mist Replacement for Halon Extinguishers CHAPTER ONE: 1.1: Introduction Choosing the best fire suppression technology is not an easy task. It even involves discussing risks and operations with insurance companies. The most relevant concern of a fire safety engineer is the protection of life which entails the safe evacuation of personnel. The starting point of a suppression system is a risk analysis to reduce the potential occurrence of a fire. This is followed by the control of the damage and the recovery effort or emergency response associated with the means of fire suppression adopted. The quality of installation, efficiency and maintenance of the suppression system adopted cannot be over-emphasised. The phase out of halons, due to environmental concerns, has lead to forceful development of new fire prevention strategies and technologies that are efficient, as well as environmentally friendly technologies. Fire protection halons were phased out of production in developing countries due to the quest to regulate the use of ozone depleting substances(ODS) as reflected in the Montreal Protocol,1987(London Amendment 1990, and Copenhagen amendment1992). Fire suppression agents have two (2) toxicological aspects to them: The toxicity of the agent The toxicity of combustion products of the agent. Several new fire suppression systems have been developed such as inert and halocarbon gaseous systems, water mist systems, gas and aerosol generators. Fire has been extinguished with water since ancient times. Water in the normal form is not a suitable suppression medium of all classes of fire. The efficiency of water in suppression is enhanced by its use of water in form of mists. Survey by Mawhinney and Richardson in 1996 showed that about 50 agencies worldwide are involved in the research and development of water fire mist and suppression systems. Water mist in fire suppression does not behave like true gaseous agents and is affected by fire size, the degree of obstruction, ceiling and the ventilation conditions of the compartment. To effectively suppress a fire, a water mist system must generate and deliver optimum sized droplets with an adequate. 1.2: Objectives and Structure of Dissertation This project aims at studying the water mist as a replacement for halons systems in the extinguishment of fires. This replacement is a direct consequence of the phase out of halons due to environmental issues and the need to find a drop-in replacement or a suitable alternative in areas where high level of fire safety is required and the cost of fatalities is too high. Chapter 2 2.1: Overview of Fire Suppression To suppress fires, the type of fire needs to be identified. The class of the fire to be extinguished also determines the type of extinguisher that can be used. There are six (6) types of fires: Class A FIRES: These involve flammable or combustible solids such as wood, rubber, fabric, paper and some plastics. Class B FIRES: These are fires involving flammable and combustible liquids or liquefiable solids such as oil, alcohol, petrol, paint and liquefiable waxes.[9] Class C FIRES: These are fires involving flammable gases such as natural gas, hydrogen, propane, butane.[9] Class D FIRES: These are fires involving combustible metals, such as sodium and potassium.[9] Class E FIRES: These are fires involving any of the materials found in Class A and B fires, but including electrical appliances, wiring, or other electrically energized objects in the vicinity of the fire, with a resultant electrical shock risk if a conductive agent is used to control the fire.[9] http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/FirstLineO2CD/page_06.htm Class F FIRES: These fires involve cooking fats and oils, especially in industrial kitchens. The temperature of these fats and oil on fire is much greater than that of other flammable liquids. 2.2: Means of Fire Suppression The aim of fire suppression is to provide cooling, control the spread of the fire as well as extinguish the fire. The behaviour of a fire is charcterised by the fire triangle which has fuel, oxygen and heat as its three sides. Combustion process is represented by: Fuel + O2 HEAT H2O + CO2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn2.1 The combustion process is an exothermic reaction, involving a fuel and oxygen. The ratio of fuel to air must be within the flammability limits of the fuel for combustion to occur. The Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) is the minimum concentration of fuel vapour in air, below which a flame cannot be supported in the presence of an ignition source. The Upper Flammability Level (UFL) is the maximum concentration of fuel vapour in air, above which a flame cannot be supported. Stoichiometric Mixture is the ratio of fuel in oxygen that requires minimal energy to support a flame. A branch of the triangle must be removed for the fire to be extinguished. Fires can either be smoldering or flaming combustion. Smoldering occurs when solids such as wood or plastics burn at or on the surface. It usually involves the release of toxic gases and can be difficult to extinguish. Flaming combustion is a gas phase phenomenon that involves the release of visible and infrared radiation. This type of fire generates much more heat. The extinguishing of a fire involves either chemical or physical mechanisms. Physical mechanism: Involves the removal of one side of the fire triangle. This can be done by either blanketing the fire (causing the fuel and air to be separated) or by removing the heat source using an agent with a high heat capacity/ latent heat of vaporization (this will cool the flame by absorbing the heat). Physical mechanism could be thermal or dilution. Thermal physical effect involves adding non-reactive gas to a fire plume leading to a reduction in the flame temperature. This is achieved by the distribution of the heat generated to a larger heat area. The heat capacity of the introduced agent determines the efficiency of the process. On the other hand, for dilution physical effect, the collision frequency of oxygen molecules with the fuel is lowered when the additional gas is introduced into the fuel-air mixture. This effect is quite minimal and negligible. Chemical mechanism: This is the use of an extinguishing agent or its degradation product to disrupt the chain reaction for sustaining combustion. This entails inhibition by halogen atoms. Most good suppressants apply both the physical and the chemical mechanisms. The type of hazard associated with an area determines the fire protection system that will be put in place. Halons have been used in a wide range of applications. Other alternatives include: Water Sprinkler Systems: This is a very common type of fixed protection that offers safe protection to limit structural damage. The cost of installing water sprinkler systems into existing structures is quite expensive. They are better at protecting structures than its contents [11]. The reliability of water sprinkler system has encouraged its wide use. Accidental discharge is uncommon with water sprinkler systems. Water sprinklers have a much slower response than other systems. They also cause a considerable secondary damage. They cannot be used on live electrical equipment and flammable liquids, but they are used widely in computer and control rooms as well as storage rooms in the USA. Detectors: This involves the use of high sensitive smoke detection. This is not exactly an active fire protection approach but it serves as an initiator to other fire protection systems [2]. Carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide is widely used in gaseous based fire extinguishing systems. There are two types of carbon dioxide system depending on the manner by which they are stored. These are high pressure and low pressure carbon dioxide systems. It is a clean agent and has a good penetrating ability. This makes it safe for use on live electrical equipment. They are also used in unoccupied spaces such as computer and control rooms. Carbon dioxide causes very minimal direct or secondary damage and allows the installation being put back to immediate use after a fire. It is however toxic and cannot be used in total flooding situations. Carbon dioxide cannot also be used in situations where weight and space are important. High concentrations of carbon dioxide are required for extinguishment and as such they are bulky and heavy. They cannot be used in manned areas because they reduce the oxygen concentration to levels below life support and thus cannot be set in automatic mode. Carbon dioxide systems are generally fast acting and cost effective. Carbon dioxide has also found use in record storage, flammable liquid fires, chemical processing equipment, turbine generators, marine applications, computer rooms and shipboard machinery. Inert Gases: inert gases in use for fire suppression are majorly argon and nitrogen mixtures. These are electrically non-conductive fire suppressants. The mechanism behind their use is the lowering of the oxygen concentration of air to that below the lower flammability point (LFL). They are not liquefied gases and they are bulky because they are stored at high pressure. The concentration of inert gases released in the hazardous area is high because they have densities that are similar to that of air. Their response time is not very fast and so they are not efficient in situations where the rate of fire spread is high. Inert gases do not decompose thermally and thus they form no breakdown products [2]. Inert gases can cause an extreme decrease in the composition of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide leading to loss of consciousness or death and as such health and safety issues have to be considered in its use. Inert gases have found wi de acceptance because they pose no environmental problems. They are not ozone depleting substances neither do they contribute to global warming. They are employed in computer and control rooms, record storage, flammable liquid fires and shipboard machinery [2]. Halocarbon Gases: These are hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons with zero ozone depleting potentials. They are however greenhouse gases and are governed by the Kyoto protocol and hence its release counts towards the national emissions inventory of global warming gases. Halocarbons are electrically non-conductive, are clean agents and are not bulky in terms of space and weight. Foam Systems: Foam systems could be low, medium or high expansion systems. Foam systems are efficient for extinguishing liquid pool fires and large cable fires. In this case, the foam acts as a barrier between the fire and the supply of oxygen. The use of chemical dispersants to clean up after its use has limited the wide use of foam systems. Furthermore the use of smoke detectors for its activation limits its speed of response. They cannot be used to protect any substance that reacts violently with water. Foams systems are often used with water sprinklers. This increases the efficiency of the systems. Foam systems have found use in the extinguishment of flammable liquid fires, engine compartments and shipboard machinery. Dry Powder: Powders have very high response time for extinguishing fires but have no cooling effect. They thus become ineffective as soon as it settles [2]. They are limited in application to extinguishing flammable liquid fires as well as engine spaces. Fine Solid Particulates: This system is used in combination with halocarbon gases and inert gases [2]. They have the advantage of reduced wall and surface losses relative to water mist and particle size is easier to control[2]. They however pose problems to sensitive equipment and cannot be used for explosion suppression applications because they are generated at high temperatures. Fine solid particulates can only be used in unmanned areas because of the problems associated with inhalation of particulate substances. Water Mist: This employs the use of fine water sprays, usually less than 100 microns in diameter. Water mists can be used on flammable liquid fires, as well as electrical equipment. They are not as effective on small or slow burning fires. Water mist installations pose problems in their design and fabrication. Hybrid Systems: Hybrid systems combine one or more of the above fire protection system. A common example of this is the combination of water mist systems and carbon dioxide. There are two methods of applying fire extinguishing agents-Total Flooding and Local Application. Total Flooding: They are operated automatically and manually. It entails applying an extinguishing agent to an enclosed space to achieve a concentration of the extinguisher that is capable of putting out the fire. This method is the most common system of application Local Application: The agent is applied directly onto the fire plume or the affected enclosure. Portable fire extinguishers are the most common forms of this approach. This method is also known as streaming application. There is an increase in the need for the phasing out of halons and this has brought the search for the perfect or drop-in replacement. The department of trade and industry in 1995 listed checklists for the selection of alternatives to halons in critical uses situations as: Fire fighting effectiveness: This involves the speed of fire suppression, the post fire hold time, the ability of the alternative to permeate, the elimination of the risk of reignition, the suitability of the alternative to the fire hazard. Ease of Installation: Ease of maintenance, pipe work, and cost of installation, cost of refill, floor space and weight, system re-instate time, and availability of the extinguisher. Hazards to occupants: Toxicity, noise levels, pressurisation, inhalation, visibility, safety as regards electrical work, thermal decomposition products [2]. Discharge effect on equipment: water damage, clean up, corrosion, thermal shock. Environmental acceptability: Ozone depletion potential, atmospheric lifetime, and global warming potential. Discharge damage: This entails clean up of the agent after use, water damage, thermal shock and corrosion. Esso Australia, while looking for alternatives to halons on their installations considered the following issues [14]: Effectiveness at extinguishing fires Environmental effects (a zero ozone depleting and global warming potential) of the agent before use and after thermal decomposition. Toxicity level and a safety margin between its No Observed Adverse Effects Level (NOAEL value) and the extinguishing concentration required Third party approval from regulatory bodies and safety partners such as International Maritime Organisation (IMO), NFPA, and EPA or Underwriters laboratory Organisations. Level of engineering required to modify an existing halon protected installations. Availability as regards to installation and maintenance at a reasonable cost. 2.2: Health and Safety Issues Considering the health and safety in the UK, there is no specific regulation as regards choice of fire extinguishing systems. Otherwise fire risks and risk from the use of extinguishment can be categorised under risks at work. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 stipulates all risks at work are to be assessed and prevented where ever it is reasonably practicable, controlled. In cases where fire extinguishing systems contain toxic substances then the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988 (COSHH regs) will also apply. The basis of the two regulations is the prevention rather than control of the risk. 2.3: Environmental regulations The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has prohibited the use of new halon systems from 1994, but accepts the use of existing ones. The EU has banned its use onboard vessels by the end of 2003. The following are regulations that are put in place to phase out the use of halons. The Montreal protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer- the Montreal protocol, signed by 25 countries on the 16th of September, 1987 is an international treaty for the control of the production and use of ozone depleting substances. It involves the restriction and eventual prohibition of the production, distribution and use of Ozone Depleting Substances. A copy of this document is attached in Appendix 1. The EC regulations: This European legislation was put in place to further tighten the restriction on the ban of ozone depleting substances. EC Regulation 3093/94 came into force on the 23rd of December 1994. EC Regulation 3093/94 is directly binding in all EU Member States and does not require any national implementing legislation. The new Regulation EC 2037/2000 came into force on 1 October 2000, replacing the Regulation 3093/94. The enforcement requires the use of bodies such as the HM Customs and Excise concerning import of controlled substances. The Department of the Environment proposes to implement these arrangements through enforcement regulations made under both the Environmental Protection Act 1990 s.140 and the European Communities Act 1972.(EC REGULATION) The new requirements are applicable to the production, distribution, use and recovery, and control of hazardous substances. The regulations also require the recovery of used controlled substances from certain equipment, s uch as fire protection systems, for disposal or recycling, during servicing and maintenance procedures of equipment. A copy of the regulation is attached to Appendix 2. The Victorian Environment Protection Legislation for the Control of Ozone Depleting substances (Victorian Government Gazette No.S57, 1990) this piece of legislation depicts the Australian governments compliance, reliance and advocacy to the implementation of the Montreal protocol on the phasing out of halon use [14]. Environmental Protection agency: Under the Clean Air Amendment, the United States Environmental Protection agency, EPA analysed various substances that could substitute fire extinguishing agents that destroy the ozone layer. These substances also have low global warming potential and low Atmospheric lifetime. The SNAP program (Significant New Alternatives Policy) is used by the EPA to replace the use of halons with environmentally friendly systems in the United States. The Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1990. With this Act, the US banned the production and import of new halons 1211, 1301 and 2402 from the 1st of January 1994 in compliance with the Montreal Protocol. The US government also imposed excise tax on halons through specialized training and proper recycling and disposal. Chapter Three: Halon Systems Halon is the generic name for bromine contained halogenated hydrocarbons. Halons systems were first installed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the gaseous form, halons are excellent fire extinguishers. Halons are mostly employed in situations where fire safety standards are high. Halons are identified by a four digit number. The numbering system is assigned by the number of carbon, number of fluorine, chlorine and bromine atoms respectively. Halon 1301, containing carbon, fluorine and bromine is used in total flooding applications while halon 1211, containing carbon, fluorine, chlorine and bromine is used as hand held portable extinguishers. The two common halon types described are effective in extinguishing classes A, B and C fires. These halons are preferred because they exhibited: high efficiency in suffocating combustion, availability in volume at reasonable cost, high storage stability, low electrical conductivity, as well as acceptable toxic properties. 3.1: Characteristics of Halons Halons interfere with the chemical reactions which take place during a fire. The properties of halons allow for its use in most situations and thus most of its applications are linked to particular characteristics. These principal applications include: Clean fire fighting agent: Halons leave no residue after use. This eliminates secondary damages and keeping loss caused by the fire to a minimum [12]. Electrically non-conductive: This property makes it suitable for safe application on fires involving electrical equipment. It will prevent exposure of fire fighters to electric shock. Low toxicity: This property makes halons acceptable and in most cases halon flooding systems are set in automatic mode by default. They can also be used to extinguish fires while people are present in the protected room. Halon flooding systems do not displace so much oxygen which can lead to suffocation[12] Rapid response: Halons are effective for rapid knockdown of flames. This property is mostly essential for class B fires involving liquid and liquefiable solids. Low concentration requirement: This means low quantity or amount of halons are required for extinguishment. It minimizes weight and space allowance [12]. Gaseous state: This allows for good penetration and effective extinguishment in confined spaces. Boiling point: The boiling point of about -4 allows it to be discharged (in the case of hand-held extinguishers) as a liquid for a while before it vaporises. This is a key requirement in some manual fire fighting applications.[12] Low heat of vaporisation: Halons will not condense to form water or ice in halon flooding systems. The most important advantage of halons is in its cost effectiveness. Halon fixed systems are the most cost effective of all extinguishing systems. 3.2: Extinguishing Mechanisms of Halons Halons extinguish fires both chemically and physically. Chemically they interfere with the chemical reactions that take place during the fire. This characterises halons as inhibitors. Radicals released during combustion to keep the fire burning are suppressed chemically by halons. This reaction is anti-catalytic. When halons are heated during combustion, they produce free radicals which compete with those produced by the original combustion process [2]. Halon 1301 produces bromine radicals which react with hydrogen free radicals to produce hydrogen bromide. The hydrogen bromide then reacts with hydroxyl radical to form water and bromide. The bromide released reacts with the combustion fire again and the whole cycle is repeated. The hydrogen and hydroxyl free radicals produced by combustion are greatly reduced in concentration by combining with the halogen free radicals produced by halons [3]. Where RH is the combustible fuel, XBr is a halon agent RH + O2 ENERGY OH + R †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.1 XBr ENERGY Br + X†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.2 RH + Br HBr + R†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.3 HBr + OH H2O + Br†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.4 RH ENERGY R + H†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.5 H + Br HBr†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.6 The combination of bromine and hydroxyl radical is also an ozone destructive reaction: HOBr UV Br + OH†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.7 OH + O3 HO2 + O2..eqn3.8 Br + O3 BrO + O2†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.9 BrO + HO2 HOBr + O2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.10 3.3: HALONS AND THE OZONE 3.3.1: The ozone layer The earth is enclosed by the atmosphere. This atmosphere is made up of a mixture of numerous gases in varying proportions. The atmosphere is further subdivided into three regions depending on temperature. These regions are: Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere. The word ozone is from a Greek word, ozein, for to smell. It is an allotropic form of oxygen having three atoms in each molecule. It is a pale blue, highly poisonous gas with a strong odour. [10] In its thickest part in the stratosphere, it is only a trace gas.. Ozone is highest in concentration, about 97%, in the stratosphere (15-60 kilometers above the Earths surface) where it absorbs the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Ozone is also highly concentrated at the Earths surface in and around cities. The buildup of ozone on the earths surface in and around cities is a result of industrial activities and is toxic to organisms living at the Earths surface. Table 3.1 shows the percentage volume composition of the constituents of atmospheric air *variable gases http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7a.html Ozone is very reactive and a stronger oxidising agent than oxygen. It is used in purifying water, sterilising air, and bleaching certain foods. Ozone is formed when an electric spark is passed through oxygen. Ozone is prepared commercially by passing cold, dry oxygen through a silent electrical discharge [7]. Ozone formed in the atmosphere is from nitrogen oxides and organic gases emitted by automobiles and industrial sources [7]. This is achieved by short wavelength ultraviolet. This is actually a health hazard, and it may cause crop damage in some regions. Ultraviolet wavelengths less than 200 nanometer reacts with oxygen molecules to make ozone. O2 UV O + O†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.11 O + O2 O3 + Heat†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.12 The heat released here is absorbed by the atmosphere and results in a rise in temperature of the atmosphere. The structure of ozone has 3 oxygen atoms, but steric hindrance prevents it from forming a triangular structure, with each O atom forming the expected 2 bonds. Instead each atom of oxygen forms only 1 bond, with the remaining negative charge being spread throughout the molecule.[7] Ozone is very unstable. It is decomposed either by collision with monoatomic oxygen or by ultraviolet radiation on it. The decomposition causes ozone to form oxygen molecules. Heat is also released to the atmosphere by this reaction O + O3 O2 + O2†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.13 O3 UV O2 + O + Heat†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.14 Ozone is decomposed in the stratosphere to prevent highly energetic ultraviolet radiation from reaching the surface of the earth. 3.3.2: Halons and ozone depletion The ozone layer is mainly depleted by compounds containing chlorine and bromine. Halogens are a chemical family containing fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine; any carbon compound containing them is known as a halocarbon. While all halogens have the ability to catalyze ozone breakdown, they have an unequal impact on the ozone layer. The quantity of halons released into the atmosphere is small relative to the number of gases present in the atmosphere. Yet they are more active in destroying the ozone or disrupting the ozone balance for two reasons: Ozone is in a constant state of imbalance, as it is destroyed and produced by natural processes. This process is controlled by solar input that does not undergo significant fluctuations. The stability of halons makes it transportable from the troposphere to the stratosphere where halogens are made active and broken down very fast, destroying ozone in the stratosphere. . The impact is described as depletion potential of the halocarbon. The OZONE DEPLETING POTENTIAL (ODP) is a simple measure of its ability to destroy stratospheric ozone. The ODP of compounds are calculated with reference to the ODP of CFC-11, which is defined to be 1. Thus ODP is a relative measure. A compound withan ODP of 0.2 is, roughly speaking, one-fifth as bad as CFC-11. The ODP of a compound x is expressed mathematically as the ratio of the total amount of ozone destroyed by a fixed amount of compound x to the amount of ozone destroyed by the same mass of CFC-11[8]: Global loss of Ozone due to x ODP(x) == †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.15[8] Global loss of ozone due to CFC-11. The above expression depicts that the ODP of CFC-11 is 1.0 by definition. The uncertainties experienced in evaluating the global loss of ozone due to a compound are eliminated here since the mathematical expression is a ratio. Evaluating the ODP of a compound is affected by the following: The quantity of chlorine or bromine atoms in a molecule. The nature of the halogen, as bromine is a more ozone- destructive catalyst than chlorine. Atmospheric lifetime of the substance: The atmospheric lifetime of the halon is the time it takes for the global amount of the gas to decay to 36.8% of its original concentration after initial emission. Compounds with low atmospheric lifetimes have lower ODP because it is destroyed in the troposphere. Molecular mass of the substance: This is because ODP is evaluated by comparing equal masses and not number of moles. Table3.2 gives time-dependent and steady-state ODPs for some halocarbon in wide use. Compound Formula Ozone Depletion Potential 10yr 30yr 100yr Steady State CFC-113 CF2ClFCl2 0.56 0.62 0.78 1.10 Carbon tetrachloride CCl4 1.25 1.22 1.14 1.08 Methyl Chloroform CH3CCl3 0.75 0.32 0.15 0.12 HCFC-22 CHF2Cl 0.17 0.12 0.07 0.05 Halon-1301 CF3Br 10.4 Water Mist Replacement for Halon Extinguishers Water Mist Replacement for Halon Extinguishers CHAPTER ONE: 1.1: Introduction Choosing the best fire suppression technology is not an easy task. It even involves discussing risks and operations with insurance companies. The most relevant concern of a fire safety engineer is the protection of life which entails the safe evacuation of personnel. The starting point of a suppression system is a risk analysis to reduce the potential occurrence of a fire. This is followed by the control of the damage and the recovery effort or emergency response associated with the means of fire suppression adopted. The quality of installation, efficiency and maintenance of the suppression system adopted cannot be over-emphasised. The phase out of halons, due to environmental concerns, has lead to forceful development of new fire prevention strategies and technologies that are efficient, as well as environmentally friendly technologies. Fire protection halons were phased out of production in developing countries due to the quest to regulate the use of ozone depleting substances(ODS) as reflected in the Montreal Protocol,1987(London Amendment 1990, and Copenhagen amendment1992). Fire suppression agents have two (2) toxicological aspects to them: The toxicity of the agent The toxicity of combustion products of the agent. Several new fire suppression systems have been developed such as inert and halocarbon gaseous systems, water mist systems, gas and aerosol generators. Fire has been extinguished with water since ancient times. Water in the normal form is not a suitable suppression medium of all classes of fire. The efficiency of water in suppression is enhanced by its use of water in form of mists. Survey by Mawhinney and Richardson in 1996 showed that about 50 agencies worldwide are involved in the research and development of water fire mist and suppression systems. Water mist in fire suppression does not behave like true gaseous agents and is affected by fire size, the degree of obstruction, ceiling and the ventilation conditions of the compartment. To effectively suppress a fire, a water mist system must generate and deliver optimum sized droplets with an adequate. 1.2: Objectives and Structure of Dissertation This project aims at studying the water mist as a replacement for halons systems in the extinguishment of fires. This replacement is a direct consequence of the phase out of halons due to environmental issues and the need to find a drop-in replacement or a suitable alternative in areas where high level of fire safety is required and the cost of fatalities is too high. Chapter 2 2.1: Overview of Fire Suppression To suppress fires, the type of fire needs to be identified. The class of the fire to be extinguished also determines the type of extinguisher that can be used. There are six (6) types of fires: Class A FIRES: These involve flammable or combustible solids such as wood, rubber, fabric, paper and some plastics. Class B FIRES: These are fires involving flammable and combustible liquids or liquefiable solids such as oil, alcohol, petrol, paint and liquefiable waxes.[9] Class C FIRES: These are fires involving flammable gases such as natural gas, hydrogen, propane, butane.[9] Class D FIRES: These are fires involving combustible metals, such as sodium and potassium.[9] Class E FIRES: These are fires involving any of the materials found in Class A and B fires, but including electrical appliances, wiring, or other electrically energized objects in the vicinity of the fire, with a resultant electrical shock risk if a conductive agent is used to control the fire.[9] http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/FirstLineO2CD/page_06.htm Class F FIRES: These fires involve cooking fats and oils, especially in industrial kitchens. The temperature of these fats and oil on fire is much greater than that of other flammable liquids. 2.2: Means of Fire Suppression The aim of fire suppression is to provide cooling, control the spread of the fire as well as extinguish the fire. The behaviour of a fire is charcterised by the fire triangle which has fuel, oxygen and heat as its three sides. Combustion process is represented by: Fuel + O2 HEAT H2O + CO2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn2.1 The combustion process is an exothermic reaction, involving a fuel and oxygen. The ratio of fuel to air must be within the flammability limits of the fuel for combustion to occur. The Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) is the minimum concentration of fuel vapour in air, below which a flame cannot be supported in the presence of an ignition source. The Upper Flammability Level (UFL) is the maximum concentration of fuel vapour in air, above which a flame cannot be supported. Stoichiometric Mixture is the ratio of fuel in oxygen that requires minimal energy to support a flame. A branch of the triangle must be removed for the fire to be extinguished. Fires can either be smoldering or flaming combustion. Smoldering occurs when solids such as wood or plastics burn at or on the surface. It usually involves the release of toxic gases and can be difficult to extinguish. Flaming combustion is a gas phase phenomenon that involves the release of visible and infrared radiation. This type of fire generates much more heat. The extinguishing of a fire involves either chemical or physical mechanisms. Physical mechanism: Involves the removal of one side of the fire triangle. This can be done by either blanketing the fire (causing the fuel and air to be separated) or by removing the heat source using an agent with a high heat capacity/ latent heat of vaporization (this will cool the flame by absorbing the heat). Physical mechanism could be thermal or dilution. Thermal physical effect involves adding non-reactive gas to a fire plume leading to a reduction in the flame temperature. This is achieved by the distribution of the heat generated to a larger heat area. The heat capacity of the introduced agent determines the efficiency of the process. On the other hand, for dilution physical effect, the collision frequency of oxygen molecules with the fuel is lowered when the additional gas is introduced into the fuel-air mixture. This effect is quite minimal and negligible. Chemical mechanism: This is the use of an extinguishing agent or its degradation product to disrupt the chain reaction for sustaining combustion. This entails inhibition by halogen atoms. Most good suppressants apply both the physical and the chemical mechanisms. The type of hazard associated with an area determines the fire protection system that will be put in place. Halons have been used in a wide range of applications. Other alternatives include: Water Sprinkler Systems: This is a very common type of fixed protection that offers safe protection to limit structural damage. The cost of installing water sprinkler systems into existing structures is quite expensive. They are better at protecting structures than its contents [11]. The reliability of water sprinkler system has encouraged its wide use. Accidental discharge is uncommon with water sprinkler systems. Water sprinklers have a much slower response than other systems. They also cause a considerable secondary damage. They cannot be used on live electrical equipment and flammable liquids, but they are used widely in computer and control rooms as well as storage rooms in the USA. Detectors: This involves the use of high sensitive smoke detection. This is not exactly an active fire protection approach but it serves as an initiator to other fire protection systems [2]. Carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide is widely used in gaseous based fire extinguishing systems. There are two types of carbon dioxide system depending on the manner by which they are stored. These are high pressure and low pressure carbon dioxide systems. It is a clean agent and has a good penetrating ability. This makes it safe for use on live electrical equipment. They are also used in unoccupied spaces such as computer and control rooms. Carbon dioxide causes very minimal direct or secondary damage and allows the installation being put back to immediate use after a fire. It is however toxic and cannot be used in total flooding situations. Carbon dioxide cannot also be used in situations where weight and space are important. High concentrations of carbon dioxide are required for extinguishment and as such they are bulky and heavy. They cannot be used in manned areas because they reduce the oxygen concentration to levels below life support and thus cannot be set in automatic mode. Carbon dioxide systems are generally fast acting and cost effective. Carbon dioxide has also found use in record storage, flammable liquid fires, chemical processing equipment, turbine generators, marine applications, computer rooms and shipboard machinery. Inert Gases: inert gases in use for fire suppression are majorly argon and nitrogen mixtures. These are electrically non-conductive fire suppressants. The mechanism behind their use is the lowering of the oxygen concentration of air to that below the lower flammability point (LFL). They are not liquefied gases and they are bulky because they are stored at high pressure. The concentration of inert gases released in the hazardous area is high because they have densities that are similar to that of air. Their response time is not very fast and so they are not efficient in situations where the rate of fire spread is high. Inert gases do not decompose thermally and thus they form no breakdown products [2]. Inert gases can cause an extreme decrease in the composition of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide leading to loss of consciousness or death and as such health and safety issues have to be considered in its use. Inert gases have found wi de acceptance because they pose no environmental problems. They are not ozone depleting substances neither do they contribute to global warming. They are employed in computer and control rooms, record storage, flammable liquid fires and shipboard machinery [2]. Halocarbon Gases: These are hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons with zero ozone depleting potentials. They are however greenhouse gases and are governed by the Kyoto protocol and hence its release counts towards the national emissions inventory of global warming gases. Halocarbons are electrically non-conductive, are clean agents and are not bulky in terms of space and weight. Foam Systems: Foam systems could be low, medium or high expansion systems. Foam systems are efficient for extinguishing liquid pool fires and large cable fires. In this case, the foam acts as a barrier between the fire and the supply of oxygen. The use of chemical dispersants to clean up after its use has limited the wide use of foam systems. Furthermore the use of smoke detectors for its activation limits its speed of response. They cannot be used to protect any substance that reacts violently with water. Foams systems are often used with water sprinklers. This increases the efficiency of the systems. Foam systems have found use in the extinguishment of flammable liquid fires, engine compartments and shipboard machinery. Dry Powder: Powders have very high response time for extinguishing fires but have no cooling effect. They thus become ineffective as soon as it settles [2]. They are limited in application to extinguishing flammable liquid fires as well as engine spaces. Fine Solid Particulates: This system is used in combination with halocarbon gases and inert gases [2]. They have the advantage of reduced wall and surface losses relative to water mist and particle size is easier to control[2]. They however pose problems to sensitive equipment and cannot be used for explosion suppression applications because they are generated at high temperatures. Fine solid particulates can only be used in unmanned areas because of the problems associated with inhalation of particulate substances. Water Mist: This employs the use of fine water sprays, usually less than 100 microns in diameter. Water mists can be used on flammable liquid fires, as well as electrical equipment. They are not as effective on small or slow burning fires. Water mist installations pose problems in their design and fabrication. Hybrid Systems: Hybrid systems combine one or more of the above fire protection system. A common example of this is the combination of water mist systems and carbon dioxide. There are two methods of applying fire extinguishing agents-Total Flooding and Local Application. Total Flooding: They are operated automatically and manually. It entails applying an extinguishing agent to an enclosed space to achieve a concentration of the extinguisher that is capable of putting out the fire. This method is the most common system of application Local Application: The agent is applied directly onto the fire plume or the affected enclosure. Portable fire extinguishers are the most common forms of this approach. This method is also known as streaming application. There is an increase in the need for the phasing out of halons and this has brought the search for the perfect or drop-in replacement. The department of trade and industry in 1995 listed checklists for the selection of alternatives to halons in critical uses situations as: Fire fighting effectiveness: This involves the speed of fire suppression, the post fire hold time, the ability of the alternative to permeate, the elimination of the risk of reignition, the suitability of the alternative to the fire hazard. Ease of Installation: Ease of maintenance, pipe work, and cost of installation, cost of refill, floor space and weight, system re-instate time, and availability of the extinguisher. Hazards to occupants: Toxicity, noise levels, pressurisation, inhalation, visibility, safety as regards electrical work, thermal decomposition products [2]. Discharge effect on equipment: water damage, clean up, corrosion, thermal shock. Environmental acceptability: Ozone depletion potential, atmospheric lifetime, and global warming potential. Discharge damage: This entails clean up of the agent after use, water damage, thermal shock and corrosion. Esso Australia, while looking for alternatives to halons on their installations considered the following issues [14]: Effectiveness at extinguishing fires Environmental effects (a zero ozone depleting and global warming potential) of the agent before use and after thermal decomposition. Toxicity level and a safety margin between its No Observed Adverse Effects Level (NOAEL value) and the extinguishing concentration required Third party approval from regulatory bodies and safety partners such as International Maritime Organisation (IMO), NFPA, and EPA or Underwriters laboratory Organisations. Level of engineering required to modify an existing halon protected installations. Availability as regards to installation and maintenance at a reasonable cost. 2.2: Health and Safety Issues Considering the health and safety in the UK, there is no specific regulation as regards choice of fire extinguishing systems. Otherwise fire risks and risk from the use of extinguishment can be categorised under risks at work. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 stipulates all risks at work are to be assessed and prevented where ever it is reasonably practicable, controlled. In cases where fire extinguishing systems contain toxic substances then the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988 (COSHH regs) will also apply. The basis of the two regulations is the prevention rather than control of the risk. 2.3: Environmental regulations The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has prohibited the use of new halon systems from 1994, but accepts the use of existing ones. The EU has banned its use onboard vessels by the end of 2003. The following are regulations that are put in place to phase out the use of halons. The Montreal protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer- the Montreal protocol, signed by 25 countries on the 16th of September, 1987 is an international treaty for the control of the production and use of ozone depleting substances. It involves the restriction and eventual prohibition of the production, distribution and use of Ozone Depleting Substances. A copy of this document is attached in Appendix 1. The EC regulations: This European legislation was put in place to further tighten the restriction on the ban of ozone depleting substances. EC Regulation 3093/94 came into force on the 23rd of December 1994. EC Regulation 3093/94 is directly binding in all EU Member States and does not require any national implementing legislation. The new Regulation EC 2037/2000 came into force on 1 October 2000, replacing the Regulation 3093/94. The enforcement requires the use of bodies such as the HM Customs and Excise concerning import of controlled substances. The Department of the Environment proposes to implement these arrangements through enforcement regulations made under both the Environmental Protection Act 1990 s.140 and the European Communities Act 1972.(EC REGULATION) The new requirements are applicable to the production, distribution, use and recovery, and control of hazardous substances. The regulations also require the recovery of used controlled substances from certain equipment, s uch as fire protection systems, for disposal or recycling, during servicing and maintenance procedures of equipment. A copy of the regulation is attached to Appendix 2. The Victorian Environment Protection Legislation for the Control of Ozone Depleting substances (Victorian Government Gazette No.S57, 1990) this piece of legislation depicts the Australian governments compliance, reliance and advocacy to the implementation of the Montreal protocol on the phasing out of halon use [14]. Environmental Protection agency: Under the Clean Air Amendment, the United States Environmental Protection agency, EPA analysed various substances that could substitute fire extinguishing agents that destroy the ozone layer. These substances also have low global warming potential and low Atmospheric lifetime. The SNAP program (Significant New Alternatives Policy) is used by the EPA to replace the use of halons with environmentally friendly systems in the United States. The Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1990. With this Act, the US banned the production and import of new halons 1211, 1301 and 2402 from the 1st of January 1994 in compliance with the Montreal Protocol. The US government also imposed excise tax on halons through specialized training and proper recycling and disposal. Chapter Three: Halon Systems Halon is the generic name for bromine contained halogenated hydrocarbons. Halons systems were first installed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the gaseous form, halons are excellent fire extinguishers. Halons are mostly employed in situations where fire safety standards are high. Halons are identified by a four digit number. The numbering system is assigned by the number of carbon, number of fluorine, chlorine and bromine atoms respectively. Halon 1301, containing carbon, fluorine and bromine is used in total flooding applications while halon 1211, containing carbon, fluorine, chlorine and bromine is used as hand held portable extinguishers. The two common halon types described are effective in extinguishing classes A, B and C fires. These halons are preferred because they exhibited: high efficiency in suffocating combustion, availability in volume at reasonable cost, high storage stability, low electrical conductivity, as well as acceptable toxic properties. 3.1: Characteristics of Halons Halons interfere with the chemical reactions which take place during a fire. The properties of halons allow for its use in most situations and thus most of its applications are linked to particular characteristics. These principal applications include: Clean fire fighting agent: Halons leave no residue after use. This eliminates secondary damages and keeping loss caused by the fire to a minimum [12]. Electrically non-conductive: This property makes it suitable for safe application on fires involving electrical equipment. It will prevent exposure of fire fighters to electric shock. Low toxicity: This property makes halons acceptable and in most cases halon flooding systems are set in automatic mode by default. They can also be used to extinguish fires while people are present in the protected room. Halon flooding systems do not displace so much oxygen which can lead to suffocation[12] Rapid response: Halons are effective for rapid knockdown of flames. This property is mostly essential for class B fires involving liquid and liquefiable solids. Low concentration requirement: This means low quantity or amount of halons are required for extinguishment. It minimizes weight and space allowance [12]. Gaseous state: This allows for good penetration and effective extinguishment in confined spaces. Boiling point: The boiling point of about -4 allows it to be discharged (in the case of hand-held extinguishers) as a liquid for a while before it vaporises. This is a key requirement in some manual fire fighting applications.[12] Low heat of vaporisation: Halons will not condense to form water or ice in halon flooding systems. The most important advantage of halons is in its cost effectiveness. Halon fixed systems are the most cost effective of all extinguishing systems. 3.2: Extinguishing Mechanisms of Halons Halons extinguish fires both chemically and physically. Chemically they interfere with the chemical reactions that take place during the fire. This characterises halons as inhibitors. Radicals released during combustion to keep the fire burning are suppressed chemically by halons. This reaction is anti-catalytic. When halons are heated during combustion, they produce free radicals which compete with those produced by the original combustion process [2]. Halon 1301 produces bromine radicals which react with hydrogen free radicals to produce hydrogen bromide. The hydrogen bromide then reacts with hydroxyl radical to form water and bromide. The bromide released reacts with the combustion fire again and the whole cycle is repeated. The hydrogen and hydroxyl free radicals produced by combustion are greatly reduced in concentration by combining with the halogen free radicals produced by halons [3]. Where RH is the combustible fuel, XBr is a halon agent RH + O2 ENERGY OH + R †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.1 XBr ENERGY Br + X†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.2 RH + Br HBr + R†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.3 HBr + OH H2O + Br†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.4 RH ENERGY R + H†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.5 H + Br HBr†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.6 The combination of bromine and hydroxyl radical is also an ozone destructive reaction: HOBr UV Br + OH†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.7 OH + O3 HO2 + O2..eqn3.8 Br + O3 BrO + O2†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.9 BrO + HO2 HOBr + O2 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.10 3.3: HALONS AND THE OZONE 3.3.1: The ozone layer The earth is enclosed by the atmosphere. This atmosphere is made up of a mixture of numerous gases in varying proportions. The atmosphere is further subdivided into three regions depending on temperature. These regions are: Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere. The word ozone is from a Greek word, ozein, for to smell. It is an allotropic form of oxygen having three atoms in each molecule. It is a pale blue, highly poisonous gas with a strong odour. [10] In its thickest part in the stratosphere, it is only a trace gas.. Ozone is highest in concentration, about 97%, in the stratosphere (15-60 kilometers above the Earths surface) where it absorbs the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Ozone is also highly concentrated at the Earths surface in and around cities. The buildup of ozone on the earths surface in and around cities is a result of industrial activities and is toxic to organisms living at the Earths surface. Table 3.1 shows the percentage volume composition of the constituents of atmospheric air *variable gases http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7a.html Ozone is very reactive and a stronger oxidising agent than oxygen. It is used in purifying water, sterilising air, and bleaching certain foods. Ozone is formed when an electric spark is passed through oxygen. Ozone is prepared commercially by passing cold, dry oxygen through a silent electrical discharge [7]. Ozone formed in the atmosphere is from nitrogen oxides and organic gases emitted by automobiles and industrial sources [7]. This is achieved by short wavelength ultraviolet. This is actually a health hazard, and it may cause crop damage in some regions. Ultraviolet wavelengths less than 200 nanometer reacts with oxygen molecules to make ozone. O2 UV O + O†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦eqn3.11 O + O2 O3 + Heat†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.12 The heat released here is absorbed by the atmosphere and results in a rise in temperature of the atmosphere. The structure of ozone has 3 oxygen atoms, but steric hindrance prevents it from forming a triangular structure, with each O atom forming the expected 2 bonds. Instead each atom of oxygen forms only 1 bond, with the remaining negative charge being spread throughout the molecule.[7] Ozone is very unstable. It is decomposed either by collision with monoatomic oxygen or by ultraviolet radiation on it. The decomposition causes ozone to form oxygen molecules. Heat is also released to the atmosphere by this reaction O + O3 O2 + O2†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.13 O3 UV O2 + O + Heat†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.eqn3.14 Ozone is decomposed in the stratosphere to prevent highly energetic ultraviolet radiation from reaching the surface of the earth. 3.3.2: Halons and ozone depletion The ozone layer is mainly depleted by compounds containing chlorine and bromine. Halogens are a chemical family containing fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine; any carbon compound containing them is known as a halocarbon. While all halogens have the ability to catalyze ozone breakdown, they have an unequal impact on the ozone layer. The quantity of halons released into the atmosphere is small relative to the number of gases present in the atmosphere. Yet they are more active in destroying the ozone or disrupting the ozone balance for two reasons: Ozone is in a constant state of imbalance, as it is destroyed and produced by natural processes. This process is controlled by solar input that does not undergo significant fluctuations. The stability of halons makes it transportable from the troposphere to the stratosphere where halogens are made active and broken down very fast, destroying ozone in the stratosphere. . The impact is described as depletion potential of the halocarbon. The OZONE DEPLETING POTENTIAL (ODP) is a simple measure of its ability to destroy stratospheric ozone. The ODP of compounds are calculated with reference to the ODP of CFC-11, which is defined to be 1. Thus ODP is a relative measure. A compound withan ODP of 0.2 is, roughly speaking, one-fifth as bad as CFC-11. The ODP of a compound x is expressed mathematically as the ratio of the total amount of ozone destroyed by a fixed amount of compound x to the amount of ozone destroyed by the same mass of CFC-11[8]: Global loss of Ozone due to x ODP(x) == †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..eqn3.15[8] Global loss of ozone due to CFC-11. The above expression depicts that the ODP of CFC-11 is 1.0 by definition. The uncertainties experienced in evaluating the global loss of ozone due to a compound are eliminated here since the mathematical expression is a ratio. Evaluating the ODP of a compound is affected by the following: The quantity of chlorine or bromine atoms in a molecule. The nature of the halogen, as bromine is a more ozone- destructive catalyst than chlorine. Atmospheric lifetime of the substance: The atmospheric lifetime of the halon is the time it takes for the global amount of the gas to decay to 36.8% of its original concentration after initial emission. Compounds with low atmospheric lifetimes have lower ODP because it is destroyed in the troposphere. Molecular mass of the substance: This is because ODP is evaluated by comparing equal masses and not number of moles. Table3.2 gives time-dependent and steady-state ODPs for some halocarbon in wide use. Compound Formula Ozone Depletion Potential 10yr 30yr 100yr Steady State CFC-113 CF2ClFCl2 0.56 0.62 0.78 1.10 Carbon tetrachloride CCl4 1.25 1.22 1.14 1.08 Methyl Chloroform CH3CCl3 0.75 0.32 0.15 0.12 HCFC-22 CHF2Cl 0.17 0.12 0.07 0.05 Halon-1301 CF3Br 10.4