National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): Proposes To Revise Codes & Standards

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) proposes to revise some of its safety codes and standards and requests proposals from the public to amend existing or begin the process of developing new NFPA safety codes and standards. The purpose of this request is to increase public participation in the system used by NFPA to develop its codes and standards. DATES: Interested persons may submit proposals on or before the dates listed with the standards. (See table in the Federal Register notice) Following the Call for Proposals period, the Technical Committee holds a meeting to consider and accept, reject or revise, in whole or in part, all the submitted Proposals. The committee may also develop its own Proposals. A document known as the Report on Proposals, or ROP, is prepared containing all the Public Proposals, the Technical Committee's action and each Proposal, as well as all Committee-generated Proposals. The ROP is then submitted for the approval of the Technical Committee by a formal written ballot. If the ROP does not receive approval by a two-thirds vote calculated in accordance with NFPA rules, the Report is returned to the committee for further consideration and is not published. If the necessary approval is received, the ROP is published in a compilation of Reports on Proposals issued by NFPA twice yearly for public review and comment, and the process continues to the next step. The Reports on Proposals are sent automatically free of charge to all who submitted proposals and each respective committee member, as well as anyone else who requests a copy. All ROPs are also available for free downloading at http://www.nfpa.org. Once the ROP becomes available, there is a 60-day comment period during which anyone may submit a Public Comment on the proposed changes in the ROP. The committee then reconvenes at the end of the comment period and acts on all Comments.

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): Request for Comments

Since 1896, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has accomplished its mission by advocating scientifically based consensus codes and standards, research, and education for safety related issues. NFPA's National Fire Codes[supreg], which holds over 270 documents, are administered by more than 225 Technical Committees comprised of approximately 7,000 volunteers and are adopted and used throughout the world. NFPA is a nonprofit membership organization with approximately 80,000 members from over 70 nations, all working together to fulfill the Association's mission.

The NFPA process provides ample opportunity for public participation in the development of its codes and standards. All NFPA codes and standards are revised and updated every three to five years in Revision Cycles that begin twice each year and that take approximately two years to complete. Each Revision Cycle proceeds according to a published schedule that includes final dates for all major events in the process. The process contains five basic steps that are followed both for developing new documents as well as revising existing documents. These steps are:

• Calling for Proposals;
• Publishing the Proposals in the Report on Proposals;
• Calling for Comments on the Committee's disposition of the Proposals and these Comments are published in the Report on Comments;
• having a Technical Report Session at the NFPA Annual Meeting; and finally,
• the Standards Council Consideration and Issuance of documents.

The purpose of this notice is to request comments on the technical reports that will be published in the NFPA's 2009 Fall Revision Cycle.

DATES:

Sixty reports are published in the 2009 Fall Revision Cycle Report on Proposals and will be available on December 29, 2008.

Comments received on or before March 6, 2009, will be considered by the respective NFPA Committees before final action is taken on the proposals.