of the flame retardant additional effects include an increase in the maximum possible amount of use of the moisture absorbent these are combined into an ultimate effect that the total heat exchanging element 1 improves in the efficiency of latent heat exchange in addition since the effect of the moisture absorbent can be elicited it is possible to reduce the amount of use of the moisture absorbent while maintaining the same performance as heretofore this means a cost reducing effect 3 furthermore since the moisture absorbent and the flame retardant are not mixed with each other it becomes possible to use chemicals that are not available heretofore due to reactivity therebetween this leads to the effect of providing a wider choice of chemicals consequently inexpensive effective chemicals can be selected from a wider range and used with cost reduction to verify these effects a test was conducted in which two samples were compared for the efficiency of latent heat exchange and that of enthalpy exchange with the same element size and the same conditions of circulating airflows the two samples were the total heat exchanging element 1 of the present configuration and a total heat exchanging element of laminate type according to a conventional example the conventional one had partition members made of a base material having flame retardancy consisting of porous material and a flame retardant additive coated with a moisture absorbent as well as spacing.