The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) has officially consolidated 1670, 1858, and 1983 into a single volume standard called NFPA 2500. In April of 2019 the NFPA voted in support of a plan to consolidate many NFPA standards into bundled, or volume standards. The plan proposes to reduce well over 100 standards into under 50 standards by 2025. The goal is to make the revision process simpler and ultimately to make standards less expensive for all of us! The Technical Committees for each standard will remain the same for the time being. In this consolidation plan, the 3 stand-alone standards NFPA 1670 (Standard on Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents), NFPA 1858 (Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services), and NFPA 1983 (Standard on Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services) have been consolidated into the single new standard NFPA 2500 called the Standard for Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents and Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services. That's a mouthful, but hey this new combined standard is nearly 250 pages and "provides minimum requirements for conducting operations at technical search and rescue incidents, for the design, performance, testing, and certification of life safety rope and equipment for emergency services, and for the selection, care, and maintenance of rope and associated equipment for emergency services personnel." 

The work-at-heights industry is less concerned and probably mostly unaware of these changes, considering these standards are heavily focused on fire and rescue personnel and the manufacturers that make the safety products they use. Well lucky for us, the manufacturers that make the equipment we use in industry are the same ones that make the equipment for the fire and rescue teams. And these NFPA standards have driven a lot of positive change and a much higher degree of quality for these products so ultimately, this pertains to everyone working at heights! 

While we won't dive into the specifics of each standard here, stay tuned to The Crux where we often do dive deep into technical issues and standards like these.