Material considerations for safety in consumer electronics

In 1969 the consumer electronics industry received some adverse publicity as the result of the National Commission on Product Safety's report on the potential for fires in color television receivers. The criticism was not without some justification for the color television receivers produced in 1965 and 1966 utilized basically the same insulation materials and test techniques that had seemed adequate in monochrome receivers. These materials were not adequate for the more severe environments present in these early color receivers and there was a sharp increase in the number of fire incidents attributable to television.