Section 5 - Testing and Certifications
TECHNICAL ADVISORY CLARIFICATION
COMPLIANCE / CERTIFICATION TO PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
This advisory is designed to address the question of product liability and obligation to meeting specific performance standards and their revisions. This clarification is applicable to any compliance regulatory issue for personal protective equipment.
Any product labeled to be compliant to a specific performance standard is subject to only the current revision of that standard as of the date of manufacture of the product. Any future revisions to that standard would require that a new product be submitted after the date of the new revision for certification. All products produced prior to a new revision are not subject to the revision but remain compliant to the standard that was in effect at the time of the products date of manufacture.
If a product is discontinued from production, existing products produced and sold previous to the discontinue date, are again only compliant to the standard that existed at the time of that products production.
EXAMPLE: A Bullard FH2192 Firedome fire helmet manufactured in October of 1992, would be required to have been certified to meet NFPA 1972 – 1992 Revision for Structural Fire Helmets. A new revision that became effective in 1997 cannot apply to a product built prior to the change.
The intent of this compliance process is to "grandfather" all existing products to the full extent of their usefulness. Any new purchases would recommend or mandate that the new products purchased meet the latest revision of the applicable standard.
Equality
Due to standards such as the NFPA, the playing field for helmet performance has been leveled. "Most" helmets offered today will perform equitably under most firefighting environments and provide safe and adequate protection. This permits the end-user to quickly establish minimum safety requirements and spend more energy on ergonomic and cost impacting issues.
NFPA
The National Fire Protection Association is an organization consisting of firefighters, manufacturers, and third party testing laboratories. Committees are formed by assigning combinations of these groups to address specific performance/protection issues for all areas that might affect the fire service. The standards that they develop are only recommendation documents that are adopted on a voluntary basis in most states.
CE/En443
Like the NFPA, Europe has developed performance requirements that address firefighting equipment for firefighters.
QAS
Australia has adopted similar performance standards to NFPA for their fire brigades.