Results are reported from a programme of work undertaken by the UK Health and Safety Executive to investigate the airblast produced by commercial sector explosives having velocities of detonation (VoD) in the range 2000-8200 m s(-1). The data produced will be useful in evaluating the blast hazards of such explosives in industrial circumstances and also as a means of assessing post-accident damage. All of the solid explosive materials studied produced blast waves which ramped up into shock-wave form close to the point of initiation. The dependence of peak overpressure and positive phase impulse on scaled distance is presented and compared to that of TNT. The TNT equivalence (TNT(e)) technique is shown to be applicable to solid phase explosives with a wide range of VoD, although the precise values of TNT(e) vary with distance.