Members to vote in June on NFPA 72® code level alarms for hearing impaired

摘要

"Nearly half of subjects with mild to moderately severe hearing loss slept through code-mandated levels of the 3,100-Hz smoke alarm signal, while nearly all participants woke up to the lower frequency 520-Hz square-wave signal," according to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)- and US Fire Administration-sponsored research. Members at the June NFPA meeting will have the opportunity to vote on the 2010 edition of NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code. The proposed code includes language that would require 520-Hz square-Wave smoke alarms in all commercial sleeping rooms and in residential bedrooms for people with hearing loss by 2014. This will give manufacturers time to develop new smoke alarms that meet the code.