The NFPA 2112 Technical Committee has voted to approve the TIA for Cloth Face Coverings. The proposed TIA, or Temporary Interim Amendment, was also open for public comment through the end of June 2020. The TIA only received one minor comment for clarification, and no negative votes from the Committee.
However, the approval is still preliminary. The final step before publication is a review by the NFPA Standards Council. That review is scheduled to take place in August 2020. With no negative votes from the Committee and only one public comment, publication is likely. And once published, FR cloth face coverings can officially be labeled and sold as NFPA 2112 Compliant.
ArcWear has been working to address masks in FR Standards since the CDC cloth face covering recommendations were handed down in April 2020. We have received several questions from customers and end-users about face masks. End-users want to know that they’re safe wile wearing face masks on the job. Many manufacturers are now making and selling flame resistant face masks. This TIA will allow those manufacturers to label the masks as NFPA 2112 Certified. That will give end-users the assurance that their mask is save from flame exposure.
We told you in a recent blog post that similar work is also underway in the ASTM F18 Committee. The recent post also includes a list of Arc Rated Cloth Face Coverings.
A key difference between NFPA 2112 and ASTM F1506 is that NFPA 2112 requires third-party certification. However, because these FR face coverings are needed immediately, it is important to eliminate delays in the certification process. The proposed TIA allows FR face coverings to be certified by self-declaration. The mask just has to be made of NFPA 2112 certified components.
ArcWear provides testing to NFPA 2112 in our ISO 17025 Accredited Test Lab in Louisville, KY. UL and SEI both accept our data for NFPA 2112 Certification Programs. Please contact us for more information or to get a certification project started today.