Here's the AFSA alert that's going out this morning
Roland
American Fire Sprinkler Association
Technical Alert
August 18, 2010
NFPA Issues Standards Council Decision on Antifreeze Systems in
Residential Occupancies
August 16, 2010, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Standards Council issued a decision on the proposed Tentative Interim
Amendments regarding antifreeze in residential fire sprinkler
systems. The council’s decision is to “… prohibit the use of
antifreeze solutions within all NFPA 13D applications and within the
dwelling unit portions of NFPA 13 and NFPA 13R sprinkler systems.”
However, the Standards Council also directed that the responsible
technical committees conduct further activities in regard to this
question.
As identified in the “AFSA Member Alert” sent July 7, NFPA issued a
safety alert on antifreeze in residential systems July 6, 2010,
following a research study and an initial set of fire tests after a
fire incident raised concern.
At it’s August 3-5 meeting, The NFPA Standards Council considered six
tentative interim amendments (TIAs), two for each standard – NFPA 13,
13R, and 13D. One TIA said antifreeze shall not be used in dwelling
units and the other restricted all antifreeze compounds to a maximum
concentration of 50%.
As a result of that meeting, the Standards Council has released TIAs
1000 on NFPA 13, 995 on NFPA 13R, and 994 on NFPA 13D effectively
stating antifreeze shall not be used in dwelling units.
Investigation Continues
As indicated in the Council decision, this should be viewed as a
moratorium. The Council urged the technical committees to address this
issue again prior to the next Council meeting in Oct 2010. The Council
also made a point of emphasizing that releasing these TIAs is not
intended to be the final technical determination on whether antifreeze
should be allowed or at what concentration nor is it intended to
prejudge the merit of any further revisions.
The fact that the report from the Fire Protection Research Foundation
(FPRF) titled "Antifreeze Solutions in Home Fire Sprinkler Systems:
Phase II Research Interim Report" (2010) was not available to the
technical committees prior to their balloting on the TIAs had a
significant impact on how this issue developed. Due to the emergency
nature of this issue though, the Council had to act. Since it is
inappropriate for the Council to modify an existing TIA or to write a
new one, they took the most conservative approach and released the
TIAs. The decision by the Council, the FPRF report and the TIAs are
available at www.nfpa.org/antifreeze.
The FPRF report identified that concentrations exceeding 50% by volume
for glycerin and 40% for propylene glycol were not appropriate for use
in residential sprinkler systems. One of the questions that the
technical committees have to answer in defining a maximum
concentration is how large a safety factor is necessary.
AFSA will continue to work closely with NFPA and keep you informed on
future developments. Complete information is available from NFPA at www.nfpa.org/antifreeze/
.
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