Widely considered a weak link in personal protective equipment, the polycarbonate facepiece lens on self-contained breathing apparatus was put through a series of thermal tests by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which released its final report on the results in November 2011.
The study, “Fire Exposures of Fire Fighter Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Facepiece Lenses,” used eight facepieces in six experiments that combined exterior lens temperatures and exposure times. Experiments lasted up to 10 minutes with temperatures ranging from approximately 500° Celsius (932° Fahrenheit) to 750° Celsius (1,382° Fahrenheit). Heat fluxes, the difference between the lens interior and exterior surface temperatures, and other variables were measured. The goal of the study was to understand thermal degradation on the equipment to determine whether failure can be predicted.
During the tests, three lenses demonstrated evidence of degradation. Exposure to a temperature of about 300° Celsius (475° Fahrenheit) for more than two minutes caused one manufacturer’s lens to melt, while another developed a hole during a large heat flux that lasted about a minute. Still another demonstrated a difference in lens surface temperature, the exterior reading at 280° Celsius (536° Fahrenheit) and the interior at almost 400° Celsius (752° Fahrenheit).
In 2001, another federal agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, noted the need for a facepiece lens that would better withstand the variety of heat loads and fluxes associated with firefighting environments (see usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-088.pdf). The agency found inadequate lens performance contributed to at least one fatality; several reports to the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System also have noted problems with facepiece degradation.
Fire Exposures of Fire Fighter Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Facepiece Lenses, supported by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Fire Administration, is at nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909917.
Progress Being Made on Firefighter Cancer Study
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports significant progress on one of the largest studies ever undertaken to determine any relationship between on-the-job exposure to contaminants and increased cancer risk.
Beginning work in October 2010 and with an original target group of 18,000 firefighters, the agency has almost completed the identification and collection of the positions held and terms of duty of approximately 30,000 firefighters active between 1950 and 2010 in Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. In addition to cancer deaths, the study examines cancer diagnoses, cancer survivors and deaths from other causes.
Researchers are studying exposure in detail, including the types of runs made, the types of fire sites involved, the dates the use of certain personal protective equipment was implemented and when diesel exhaust controls went into effect.
The results are expected in 2013 and will be distributed to the public in 2014. The study protocols, timeline and other information are available at cdc.gov/niosh/fire/cancerstudy.html.
A Tale of Two Bills
A Republican House bill that would allocate exclusively for public safety use a portion of the 700 MHz broadcast band known as the D Block, as well as legislation to extend additional Medicare payments for ambulance transportation, were both caught up in the final drama of the 112th Congress’ first session, the middle-class tax cut extension. Only the ambulance payment extensions survived the battle.
The Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act, a draft bill composed in the final weeks of the 2011 legislative session by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, would reserve the D Block for public safety and provide funds to develop a national network. Provisions for funding the construction of a 20 MHz nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network with up to $6.5 billion and for certain Next Generation 911 development were received favorably by the emergency response community, though they had hoped for up to $10 billion for the network. Other elements drew immediate criticism from safety officials, who opposed the draft’s provision to recall and auction the existing public safety narrowband spectrum to pay for the network and the way a governance system would be created. The JOBS draft became Title IV of the Republican-sponsored Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, which passed the House with an overwhelmingly partisan majority but had little chance in the Senate due to unemployment insurance cuts and other measures that it contained.
Included in the same bill was an extension of Medicare Ambulance Relief for two additional months past its December 2011 expiration. The temporary 2 percent urban and 3 percent rural bonus payments and the increased base rate for super-rural ambulance trips, currently calculated at 22.6 percent, would be continued until a long-term plan, or at least another temporary annual increase that both political parties could support, could be passed before March 2012.
Opposed to program cuts contained in the House bill, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to amend the bill to continue important laws for two months, renaming it the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act. While the bill extended the Medicare add-on payments for ground and air ambulances through the end of February 2012, the D Block provision was dropped from the bill completely.
Although the House speaker gave assurances his body would support the two-month extension, when the amended bill went back to the House for approval, his Republican caucus did not offer their support. With less than 10 days before the expiration of the ambulance and other critical payments, the caucus created a roadblock by voting to take the bill to a conference committee to work out differences with the Senate, which the Senate rejected.
Embarrassed by the national outcry over their rejection of the bill, which would have increased taxes for middle and lower-middle class Americans and cut unemployment insurance, the House Republicans finally folded. The Senate passed the same bill again to send back to the House to be passed by unanimous consent, avoiding more public debate in the House and a roll-call vote. The president signed the bill the same day, Dec. 23, 2011.
Though ambulance payments are safe, in the short run, when and where legislation on the D Block will resurface—with those provisions favored by the emergency response community—is anyone’s guess.
A copy of the House Republican D Block bill as it appeared as Title IV of the Republican-supported Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act is at gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr3630eh/pdf/BILLS-112hr3630eh.pdf.
Senate Joins Push for Volunteer Responder IRS Benefits
The Senate joined the House in introducing legislation to resolve the negative effects of certain Internal Revenue Service tax codes on recruitment and retention incentives for volunteer responders, specifically the Length of Service Award Plans (LOSAPs).
The Volunteer Emergency Services Recruitment and Retention Act would allow tax payment on LOSAPs to begin at retirement rather than at collection. The annual contribution limit would be increased to $5,500 from $3,000 and would be adjusted for inflation in following years.
The Senate bill was introduced in November 2011 and referred to the Finance Committee. The House bill, introduced in January 2011, is under consideration in the Ways and Means Committee and Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions.
USFA Administrator Confirmed
The Senate voted in November 2011 to confirm President Obama’s nominee as administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration, Chief Ernest Mitchell Jr. (Ret.).
Mitchell brings 30 years of experience to the position, retiring in 2004 as fire chief and assistant director of disaster emergency services with the Pasadena (Calif.) Fire Department. He also served as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs from 2003 to 2004.
The USFA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
