International Association of Fire Fighters

HEALTH AND SAFETY ALERT  

The IAFF is sending this health and safety alert to members to advise of two important and critical problems reported to the IAFF and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) regarding Pass Alarm Signals and SCBA Cylinder Interoperability.  

PASS Alarm Signals Fail at High Temperatures

During the investigation of four fire fighter fatalities between 2001 and 2004, NIOSH discovered that exposure to high temperature environments may cause the loudness of Standard on Personal Alert Safety Systems (PASS) alarm signals to be reduced, causing the alarm signal to become indistinguishable from background noise at the incident scene.  Read more ...

IAFF Addresses SCBA Cylinder Interoperability

Problems reported to NIOSH in regard to interchangeability of respirator subassemblies and unapproved modifications to NIOSH-certified respirators have been determined to be caused by user modification to certified respirators – resulting in the modified respirator failing to perform as anticipated, thereby jeopardizing the respirator user. In some cases, even minor modifications to respirators can make significant changes in the performance of the respirator.  Read more ...