Standard on Flame-Resistant Garments for Protection of Industrial Personnel Against Flash Fire
Edition: 2012
Purpose: The NFPA 2112 standard shall provide minimum requirements for the design, construction, evaluation, and certification of flame-resistant garments for use by industrial personnel, with the intent of not contributing to the burn injury of the wearer, providing a degree of protection to the wearer, and reducing the severity of burn injuries resulting from short-duration thermal exposures or accidental exposure to flash fires.
Scope: The NFPA 2112 standard shall specify the minimum performance requirements and test methods for flame-resistant fabrics and components and the design and certification requirements for garments for use in areas at risk from flash fires.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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What is NFPA 2112? The National Fire Protection Association 2112 Standard provides minimum requirements for the design, construction, evaluation, and certification of flame-resistant garments for use by industrial personnel. It does not attempt to provide any guidance on matching the PPE to the quantified hazard – that is what NFPA 2113 is designed for.
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Are all industrial fires three seconds or less? Short duration fires are a rare exception. Open the newspaper, turn on the TV or visit a web site such as U.S. Chemical Safety Board to see firsthand evidence of just how extensive fires usually are when they occur at manufacturing, chemical and petroleum-based industrial sites. Three seconds is a performance specification that is only used to qualify a garment as FR. It has nothing to do with establishing the correct level of PPE workers need in your particular fire hazard environment.
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What minimum percent body burn is required to pass NFPA 2112 testing? For a garment to pass NFPA 2112 testing, it must exhibit 50 percent or less total predicted body burn using a standardized burn injury model.
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Is a garment that generates a 50-percent predicted body burn from a standardized model acceptable to your organization? If not, then you need to look beyond NFPA 2112 compliance and evaluate garment systems for their actual performance levels and not simply a pass/fail criteria based on the 50-percent predicted skin burn injury model.
- If a garment carries an NFPA 2112 “pass” rating does it mean it will protect you workers adequately or meet applicable OSHA regulations? There are no short cuts – do the homework, generate the data, and work with garment providers to understand what type of garments or garment systems will provide the levels of protection required.
