NFPA Seeks Public Comments on New Standard for OD Response

PRESS RELEASE

Oct 23—The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent a New Project Initiation Request to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Standards Council asking for the development of an ANSI-accredited standard for community-based response to drug overdoses (CReDO). This new standard would address the necessary functions and actions related to the prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery to drug overdoses by any community, AHJ, facility, and/or organization that handles these types of incidents.

According to the DHS request, NFPA was selected to develop the proposed CReDO standard because of its open-consensus codes and standards development process. The DHS request states:

To address this national public health emergency, we need a multi-level community response to prevention, identification, response and recovery to these overdose events. Communities need to recognize and share best practices and tools to tackle the issues within their respective jurisdictions. It requires consistent training, terminology, tools, systems, frequent updates of current information, and overall coordinated management of response actions.

A national voluntary consensus standard would bring together all vested stakeholders to tackle this problem together. It would include participation by federal, state and local government, law enforcement, EMS, fire, hospitals, poison centers, professional organizations, laboratories, addiction treatment programs, drug prevention experts and private sector partners.

“As first responders have become increasingly relied upon to provide emergency response to a growing range of incidents, NFPA has worked to support their roles and responsibilities, wherever they’re required to go,” said Chris Dubay, vice president of NFPA’s codes and standards division. “We’re honored that DHS has recognized the work we’ve done and considered NFPA the appropriate organization for this effort.”

When the NFPA Standards Council receives requests to develop a new standard, comments are solicited from as many groups and individuals as possible to gauge levels of support or opposition. This feedback ultimately enables the Council to determine whether or not to begin standards development. 

Recognizing that there will be many points of view and perspectives to be considered on the proposed CReDO standard, NFPA is now soliciting public comments, which can be provided to the Standards Council at stds_admin@nfpa.org through December 31, 2019.

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