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Cabling News from the NFPA World Safety Conference & Exposition® June 6-10, 2005 & results of the
Technical Committee Session
(National Fire Protection Association www.nfpa.org)
NFPA 90A = The NFPA body voted to return the entire document to the committee. This means that the committee will be asked:
1) Should the deliberations on the ENTIRE document including all wire, cable and damper issues be scheduled for new public comments or new public proposals?
2) How should the committee address the request of NFPA Standards Council to have a single minimum for cable?
As the NFPA meeting was in Vegas, there was a lot of speculation about the Technical Committee on Air Conditioning and its future. "Vegas money" put the best bet with the committee being disbanded and the committee responsibilities being shuffled to other committees within NFPA. There was no official position presented as this is just conjecture, based on comments from numerous attendees.
The issue of toxicity testing was entered into the record from the floor. Regarding CMP-50 cable, a formal proposal for toxicity testing is likely for the next code cycle.
The next step is for NFPA Standards Council to hear any appeals on the matter. It is expected that the fluoropolymer manufacturers will file an appeal to have the document issued as the committee developed.
The initial voting had our proposal to have NFPA 90A Chapter 4 returned pass 80%-20% (about 240-60).
There were additional proposals adopted by the body that addressed definitions and they were officially adopted at 188-108.
Proposals on dampers were likewise approved by about the same 63% margin.
A motion was then made by Tom Dusza (a member of NFPA 90A) to return the entire document to committee; that measure passed by 12 votes and all prior actions were negated. The commercially driven proposals pushed by the fluoropolymer manufacturers did not win or lose, but they are still alive.
If the issue was just about fire and smoke, and not about SAFETY; then we would still be using ASBESTOS. Safety is too important to ignore.
But that’s just my opinion.
Frank Bisbee
"Heard On The Street" column
www.wireville.com
Jacksonville, FL
(904) 645-9077
frank@wireville.com
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