Washington, D.C. – The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has reaffirmed its endorsement of NFPA 1710 and the NFPA consensus standard process. The decision was handed down in response to a challenge submitted by the League of California Cities.
ANSI is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. standardization and conformity assessment system. The Institute promotes and facilitates consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguards their integrity.
The NFPA 1710 Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments is a comprehensive guideline for the organization, operation, deployment, and evaluation of public fire protection and emergency medical services. It was approved in 2001 after decades of study and development.
The League of Californian Cities sought to strip ANSI approval from NFPA 1710 based on a series of allegations that have been leveled since the standard was approved. Each of the challenges that have been issued by management groups opposed to NFPA 1710 has been rebuffed, further strengthening overall acceptance of the standard.
In its January decision, the ANSI Standards Executive Council wrote:
“Having considered the extensive written record before it, the Panel does not believe that the complainants have submitted sufficient evidence to substantiate their claims that NFPA had failed to follow its ANSI-approved procedures or otherwise comply with ANSI requirements.”
As examples, the council remarked that, “The complaints failed to demonstrate that the consensus bodies were not sufficiently balanced. Among other things, it is not per se improper to assign an interest category to a consensus body member based on their current position and/or employer as it is usually assumed that it is in that capacity that he or she is participating.”
The ANSI Council decided to submit NFPA 1710 and NFPA 1720 as part of NFPA’s next regularly scheduled audit. To maintain accreditation, NFPA must be regularly audited by ANSI. During each regular audit, ANSI selects several sample standards to review, rather than look at standards development records for each of NFPA’s 300 standards.
