THE CODES
Council Rules
Standards Council decides on code appeals, including NFPA 99.

NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, will not be issued and will enter the Annual 2011 cycle.

That was the decision of NFPA’s Standards Council at its meeting in August, which was highlighted by the ongoing discussion over the fate of NFPA 99. Association members at this year’s NFPA Technical Session, held in Chicago in June, had voted to return the entire report of the 2010 edition of the code.

At its recent meeting, the 13-member Council, which administers the standards development process for NFPA, considered an appeal to the Technical Session vote. The appeal requested that the Council reject that vote and proceed with issuing the 2010 edition of NFPA 99.

The Standards Council faced a number of possible choices on the matter, but in the end chose to uphold the Tech Session vote that the 2010 edition of NFPA 99 not be issued, and decided to enter the code into the Annual 2011 cycle. Meetings to review existing public proposals, as well as proposals generated by the Technical Committees, will begin this fall. The document will be presented to the Association’s voting members at the 2011 NFPA meeting in Boston.

"The move to support this membership vote is one the Council would rarely counter because of its deference to the code development process," says Amy Beasley Cronin, secretary of the Standards Council. Cronin had said that the Tech Session vote to not accept the 2010 edition was the result of "unresolved issues" with the document.

To help it make the most informed decision, the Council conducted an informational ballot of the Health Care Facilities committees, according to NFPA regulations. The results showed significant support of the vote to return the document, and for the Council to require that the document again complete the revision process.

The 2010 edition of the code was the product of extensive changes made to the 2005 version, updates designed to more accurately reflect how, and where, medical care is delivered in the United States.

- Lisa Nadile

The Fourth International Conference on Fire-Safe Cigarettes will be held in Massachusetts in October.

The event, sponsored by NFPA and the Harvard School of Public Health, is expected to bring together members of the fire service, public health officials, insurance and law enforcement officials, and representatives from the country’s leading tobacco manufacturers.

The focus of this year’s conference will be state implementation of fire-safe cigarette laws. Speakers will discuss how their states have implemented the laws and what some of the tobacco manufacturers are doing to comply with the state laws. The conference will also provide attendees with an opportunity to share their experiences with colleagues from other states as they move forward with this fire-safety initiative.

The conference is the result of the work of the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes, which is calling for cigarette manufacturers to produce only cigarettes that adhere to an established cigarette fire safety performance standard. The coalition consists of fire service members, consumer and disability rights advocates, medical and public health practitioners, and others, including NFPA, AARP, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Burn Association, and the Congressional Fire Services Institute.

In addition to its work with cigarette manufacturers, the Coalition is lobbying for fire-safe cigarette standards in every state in the country.

Since April, fire-safe cigarette laws have become effective in Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, and Louisiana. Later this year, laws are expected to go into effect in Hawaii and Wisconsin. In 2010, 17 states that have signed fire-safe cigarette legislation are scheduled to implement the laws: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, South Dakota, Arkansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Nebraska, Alabama, Michigan, and Missouri. The only state that has yet to sign fire-safe legislation into law is Wyoming, where Representative Tom Labnau has filed House Bill #305.

This means that more than 99 percent of the U.S. population is now, or soon will be, better protected from fires caused by cigarettes, which kill 700 to 900 people per year in the United States and injure thousands more. In Canada, fire-safe cigarettes are required nationwide.

For more information, please visit www.firesafecigarettes.org.

FIRE PREVENTION WEEK
Don’t get burned...
Materials galore to help you and your organization plan an effective October Fire Prevention Week campaign.

A blog, a Twitter feed, the firepreventionweek.org website—all are NFPA tools with a consistently updated stream of information to help you organize your campaign for this year’s Fire Prevention Week, which runs from October 4 to 10.

In addition to these new-media tools, traditional materials such as banners, stickers, T-shirts, and movies are all available to educators and the fire service to bring safety news, including burn prevention, to your community. The theme of this year’s Fire Prevention Week (FPW) is "Stay Fire Smart! Don’t Get Burned."

The www.firepreventionweek.org website is your portal to a host of other tools. Audio clips from NFPA’s Judy Comoletti, manager of NFPA’s Public Education Division, and Amy LeBeau, the division’s communications manager, provide a broad overview of the materials available and how best to use them.

The website also has a link to the new FPW Twitter feed. This mini-blog connects you to important updates from NFPA’s Public Education staffers, who bring you new ideas for your FPW programs. A link to the FPW blog expands on these ideas for you, directing you to the best tools and materials.

The "Teachers" section of the site includes a fun song to motivate and educate children, along with extensive lesson plans for teachers and the fire service. Downloadable documents let you choose the specific content for your program and customize your lessons. E-cards, origami Sparky instructions, and a caregiver letter round out this expanded section.

Another section helps the fire service organize and leverage fundraising efforts in this difficult economic period. "Because many fire departments are coping with budget cuts, we’ve created a sample fundraising letter for the fire service," says LeBeau. "They can add their information and masthead to create their own fundraising appeal for distribution to local companies."

This section also provides instruction for creating and organizing a fundraising plan. How-to guides for creating a smoke alarm installation program, organizing a fire department open house, building interactive learning stations, and organizing a community-wide fire drill are also provided.

In addition, NFPA’s YouTube channel features a special FPW video of Amy LeBeau (below) discussing one of the most distressing injuries a family can face: scalding from bath water.

The monthly Fire Prevention Week newsletter is also a free source of ideas as you plan your campaign.

- Lisa Nadile