Blog

The NFPA Standards Council has approved 2112 TIA 18-1.  With this TIA, or Temporary Interim Amendment, NFPA 2112 now includes flame resistant cloth face coverings in its scope.

ArcWear has been working to address masks in FR Standards since the CDC cloth face covering recommendations were handed down in April 2020. We have received several questions from customers and end-users about face masks. End-users want to know that they’re safe while wearing face masks on the job. Many manufacturers are now making and selling flame resistant face masks. The newly approved TIA now allows those manufacturers to label the masks as NFPA 2112 Certified. That gives end-users the assurance that their mask is safe to wear in a flash fire exposure.

We told you in a recent post that similar work is also underway in the ASTM F18 Committee. That work has been stalled by an appeal from one negative voter.  The appeal will be heard by ASTM’s Committee on Standards later this month.

A key difference between NFPA 2112 and ASTM F1506 is that NFPA 2112 requires third-party certification. However, because these FR face coverings are needed immediately, it is important to eliminate delays in the certification process. The new TIA allows FR face coverings to be certified by self-declaration. The mask just has to be made of NFPA 2112 certified components.