- Author
-
Mattson, P.
- Title
- DHS Standards Development Program Overview.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NIST SP 1051; NIST Special Publication 1051,
December 2007,
- Book or Conf
- Real-Time Particulate Monitoring: Detecting Respiratory Threats for First Responders. Workshop Proceedings. Appendix 3: Workshop Presentations. Appendix 3.I. May 3-4, 2007,
Gaithersburg, MD,
76-82 p.,
2007
- Keywords
-
first responders
|
respiratory systems
|
health hazards
|
fire fighters
|
standards
|
public safety
|
fire departments
|
fire fighting equipment
|
hazard analysis
|
test methods
|
validation
- Abstract
- The DHS Standards Development Program identifies and adopts standards and creates mechanisms to accelerate standards development. Although DHS does not have the statutory authority to issue or enforce standards, with a few legacy exceptions, it does promote the development of voluntary consensus standards. For the public safety community, the interaction with DHS is through the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES). The Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability (IAB) has developed a Standardized Equipment List (SEL) containing items essential for responding to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) incidents. The objective is to provide manufacturers with guidance in meeting performance requirements. The program concentrates on the tools needed to protect people and to identify the hazard. Fire departments can purchase whatever they want with their own funds, but to use DHS funding, equipment must conform to approved standards. The Standards Development Process involves the following steps in a continuous loop: (*) Solicit user guidance, (*) Analyze the hazard and identify operational factors (Requirements Development), (*) Identify existing standards, establish performance levels, and draft new standard and test methods (Standards Development and Research), (*)Review and validate standard and test methods (Test Method Validation), (*) Issue and adopt the standard and (*) Develop assessment model and conduct conformity testing (Conformity Assessment Program).