A sweeping revision of NFPA 472, Standard for Professional Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials Incidents, is up for a vote at the National Fire Protection Association’s annual meeting, which takes place in Boston June 3-7. If passed, these will be among the most significant changes in the 21-year history of NFPA 472, which defines the basic responder levels of Awareness, Operations, Technician and Incident Commander. NFPA 472 is one of the most widely-used standards in the world.

If adopted, the standard will be re-designated Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents. As the new designation suggests, the revised NFPA 472 encompasses the terrorist/criminal use of hazardous materials, acknowledging that the threat of terrorism has become a major issue for emergency responders. One major change in the standard is the new designation ‘Awareness Level Personnel,’ replacing the former term ‘Awareness Level Responders.’ According Greg Noll, a member of the NFPA 472 Technical Committee, "We see Awareness as more analagous to Hazard Communications (HAZCOM) training, rather than being an emergency responder. These are individuals who in the course of their normal duties, may be the first on-scene. Therefore, the focus is to (1) detect the presence of a hazard; (2) protect yourself; (3) call for trained personnel; and (4) secure the area. If you are tasked to RESPOND to the scene of a HM/WMD incident, we see you as an Operations-level responder."

Broadening the Standard for All Responders
The Committee has made great efforts to design the standard to meet the needs of all emergency responders, no matter what their particular discipline may be. While individual competencies at the Operations Level are not significantly changing, the concept of Operations-level core and "mission-specific" competencies is being introduced. "We have tried to follow the philosophy that responders should be trained to do their expected tasks regardless of what response discipline they may represent," says Noll. There are no significant revisions being proposed at the Hazardous Materials Technician level.

Emergency Film Group worked closely with several members of the Hazardous Materials Response Personnel Committee to develop training to meet the revised standard. Five members of the Committee were advisors for Hazmat Operations, a video-based series that provides eight hours of training in Operations Level competencies. Hazmat/WMD Awareness, which trains Awareness Level personnel, includes two members of the committee. In addition, Emergency Film Group has partnered with American Public University’s Center for Professional Development to offer an online training course on Hazmat Operations which is based on EFG’s Hazmat Operations series. The online course, which is available at www.efilmgroup.com/Online-Training.html, features Committee-member Rem Gaade as Instructor. Continuing education credits are awarded upon successful completion.

Hazardous Materials Response Personnel Committee
The National Fire Protection Association was founded in 1896 to promote fire safety. With over 81,000 members, NFPA is the world's leading advocate of fire prevention and is an authoritative source on public safety. NFPA's 300 codes and standards influence every building, process, service, design, and installation in the United States, as well as many of those used in other countries.

In response to fire service’s need for protection during response to ‘chemical incidents,’ NFPA’s July 1985 Standards Council meeting approved the startup of the Hazardous Materials Response Personnel Committee. This mission of the committee was to establish guidelines and standards so that emergency responders could safely and intelligently respond to these incidents. Today, the committee is made up of emergency responders from the fire service, law enforcement and emergency medical services, as well as private industry and related government agencies.

The committee continually reviews the standard to insure that it is accurate and up to date, and represents the current needs and trends of the industry. They meet formally several times per year to discuss new developments and changing trends. Task groups routinely work between meetings to formulate proposed changes.

NFPA's Standard Development Process
The process for revising a standard is the same for all NFPA codes and standards. First, there is a Call for Proposals, which is a public notice published in appropriate publications inviting written proposals to develop or revise a particular standard. Following the Call for Proposals period, which is approximately 20 weeks, the Technical Committee for that standard (document) meets to consider and accept, reject or revise the submitted proposals. The committee may also develop its own proposals regarding the standard.

Next, a document called the Report on Proposals (ROP) is prepared which summarizes each proposal relevant to the standard and the action of the committee on each proposal. It is submitted to the Technical Committee for a vote and must pass by a 2/3 margin, otherwise the ROP is returned to the committee for further discussion.

Once the ROP is passed by the Technical Committee by the requisite 2/3 vote, it is published in NFPA’s semi-annual Reports on Proposals, which is a compilation of all pending new and revised documents or standards. The Reports on Proposals is available for public review and comment for a 60-day comment period during which time anyone may submit a Public Comment on any proposed changes.

At the end of that period, the Technical Committee reconvenes and acts on any Public Comments that have been received regarding their particular standard. As before, a two-thirds approval vote is required for approval of actions on the comments. This information is compiled into a Report on Comments (ROC), which is published and made available for public review for seven weeks.

The proposed Documents as well as all related reports are then taken to NFPA’s Annual Meeting, where they are debated at Technical Report Sessions before being presented to the NFPA membership for vote. Documents that are approved by a majority of the members are then forwarded to NFPA’s Standards Council. After reviewing any appeals related to the document or revisions, the Council issues the Document as an official NFPA code or standard.

For a more complete description of the NFPA Codes and Standards development process, visit www.nfpa.org.