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The purpose of this paper is the production of fire retardant and smoke suppressant rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) with lower toxicity by using several fire-retardant combinations.

Fire-retardant additives with cooling effect, barrier ash formation effect, gas-phase inhibition effect and smoke suppressant effect combined to produce an optimum outcome on RPUF. The additive amount and burning time correlation were studied to find out the minimum amount of fire-retardant to obtain fire-retardant polyurethane foam.

Zinc borate powder was coated with 1.5 wt % of stearic acid and hydroxy stearic acid. Polyammonium diborates (PABs) were synthesized and used as a fire-retardant and smoke suppressant for rigid PU foam. Fire-retardant rigid polyurethane foams (FR-RPUF) composites formed by using several combinations of zinc borate, aluminum trihydroxide, trischloroisopropyl phosphate (TCPP), PABs, zinc borate coated with stearic acid and hydroxy stearic acid. Produced FR-RPUF were horizontal burning grade, and burning time was in the range of 1–10 s.

There were limitations during the mixing of fire-retardant powders with polyol due to the high viscosity of the mixture.

FR-RPUF foam with lower toxicity can be produced industrially with these fire-retardant combinations.

FR-RPUF could be produced by using non-toxic additives. During a fire, these additives do not evolve toxic gases. The TCPP content of RPUF foam was reduced, and fire-retardant PU with lower toxicity was produced.

Coated zinc borate and the combinations of the fire-retardants were successful in producing non-toxic fire-retardant and smoke suppressant PU foam.

This chapter discusses youth political participation through the study of a band of young Kurdish musicians performing ethnic music in the streets of Eskişehir, a university town in Turkey. These street musicians play local music from the various ethnic groups in Turkey (in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic and Persian); in other words, folk music, but with a musical reinterpretation and a symbolic political meaning. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study argues that these young musicians performing in the streets are struggling for a place in the public space, as young, Kurdish and musicians. Regarding the political aspect of their participation, their most apparent claim is to freely express oppressed ethnic identities in the public space, starting from their own. The Kurdish identity has been stigmatised for so long that any act publicly revealing a Kurdish identity may be perceived, in public, as political, if not criminal. However, in this particular case, performing ethnic music – not only any songs in Kurdish but a particular genre of music associated with a set of political values and ideas such as multiculturalism – is an artistic choice but a political one too. Besides, their performance place, the streets, as unstructured and informal settings, and how these young musicians choose to deal with the challenges of playing in the streets, also shape their style of participation. With their performance in the streets, they open space for themselves in the city, physically and discursively. In order to make sense of their participation, this study focuses on these young street musicians’ ‘tactics’ for being present in the streets, but also on historical and theoretical elements to understand the politicisation of ethnic music and the political aspects of the streets.