1: Fire
Reduce the rate of death from fire related causes by 20 percent from 1998 to 2013. Other Information:
We will use the following strategies to meet the strategic goal of reducing the firerelated death rate: § Address the hazards
associated with small open-flame ignition of upholstered furniture and mattresses. § Participate in research partnerships
to advance smoke alarm technology and encourage the strengthening of existing voluntary safety standards to further improve
the reliability and effectiveness of smoke alarms. § Continue to work with consumers and other organizations to encourage
the increased use and maintenance of older homes. § Continue to participate in the National Electrical Code (NEC) development
process to improve the safety of electrical installations. For example, CPSC staff has developed several proposals to revise
the 2005 edition of the NEC to increase the use of arc- fault circuit interrupters in homes. § Address the hazards associated
with range fires by conducting research on the use of sensors and associated electrical control systems to minimize the risk
of fires from improper operation of appliances or from failures of those appliances. For example, CPSC has demonstrated the
use of sensors to modulate the energy used in cooking, which can minimize the risk smoke alarms and the use of residential
sprinklers in new and retrofit home construction. § Encourage the replacement of hazardous electrical wiring systems in of
a food fire. At present, CPSC staff is evaluating the performance of various types of sensors that may be able to detect pre-hazard
signatures in failing appliances. § Continue participation in selected voluntary standards committees to enhance industry's
efforts to manufacture safer products. § Continue enforcement of mandatory flammability performance standards to reduce fire
deaths related to ignition of mattresses, carpets, children's sleepwear, and wearing apparel and deaths due to child play
with cigarette and multi-purpose lighters. § Increase public awareness of critical fire safety information and expand our
efforts to promote consumer awareness of electrical safety issues through targeted multilingual information campaigns. These
campaigns will focus on older homes and vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, the economically disadvantaged,
and non-English speaking persons. The effectiveness of these information campaigns can be enhanced by developing partnerships
with interested parties who can assist in distribution of our electrical safety materials. § Continue to pursue recalls or
develop corrective action plans for products that do not comply with safety regulations or defective products that present
a substantial product hazard. § Continue ongoing surveillance of fire incident data and reports to identify and act on emerging
or unknown product-related fire hazards. § Seek partnerships with states and public and private organizations to achieve more
cost-effective solutions to identify and address fire hazards. § Pursue mandatory standards, where appropriate, to reduce
the risk of fire deaths related to consumer products. § Continue work with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to
prevent violative imports from entering the country. PERFORMANCE MEASURES We use the annual residential fire-related death
rate per million population as the primary performance measure to evaluate our strategic goal. We track consumer product involvement
in fire-related deaths, injuries, fires, and property damage annually. When appropriate, we will also estimate and report
societal costs or savings. Information on consumer productrelated fire deaths is developed from death certificates purchased
by CPSC from the states and from information from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and the U.S. Fire Administration
(USFA). The population of various age groups in the United States is available from the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department
of Commerce. Societal costs include information from our Injury Cost Model and other sources and an assumed cost of $5 million
per statistical life, consistent with economic literature. See Appendix B, page 57 for a discussion of consumer product-related
fire death data and issues related to the time needed to develop it. OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WITH SIMILAR PROGRAMS CPSC has the
primary role for reducing fire hazards related to consumer products and also enforces the Flammable Fabrics Act. We work closely
with staff of other organizations in order to address fire issues more efficiently, to enhance the effectiveness of our efforts
to achieve fire loss reduction goals, and to avoid duplication of effort. These include: § American Gas Association (AGA)
§ American National Standards Institute (ANSI) § Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) § ASTM International (ASTM)
(private standards-setting organization) § Building Code Groups § Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department
of Homeland Security § Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) § Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) §
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) § National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) § National Center for Injury Prevention
and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) § National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
§ National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) § National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) § National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) § National Park Service (NPS) § Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) §
Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) § U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) § U.S. Fire Administration (USFA)
§ Various state and local governments § Various trade associations The USFA collects and provides essential data on residential
fires, stimulates new technology, and conducts public information campaigns relating to fire. NIST performs basic and applied
research in the fire sciences, provides their facilities for special fire testing, and serves as a comprehensive resource
for standards information. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC, working with state health departments,
is evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in increasing smoke alarm use and reducing residential fire-related injuries,
deaths and related health care costs. CFSI was a member of the Steering Committee of CPSC's National Smoke Detector Project.
We communicate with other agencies that have regulatory authority and conduct fire research in areas beyond our jurisdiction,
such as the FAA (aircraft), OSHA (workplace), NHTSA (automotive), and HUD (manufactured housing). NFPA, a private-sector organization,
has a major role in the collection and analysis of residential fire data in addition to developing and publishing this country's
national fire codes, investigating major fires, and conducting public information programs. We continually communicate and
interact with these and other organizations, including state and local agencies. We formed a multi-agency (both public and
private) task force to conduct research on the effectiveness of current and emerging smoke alarm technologies for residential
use. Several sponsors (CPSC, UL, NFPA, USFA, CDC, and HUD) are providing funding for NIST to perform these tasks. USFA has
provided supporting funds for our projects on range fires, smoke alarms, and home electrical wiring systems. FAA, NIST, and
the State of California have consulted with us on technical issues related to upholstered furniture. We participate in the
CDC Healthy People 2010 Work Group on Fire Prevention, and we have provided limited funding in support of their fire prevention
initiative. We maintain continuing liaison with USFA on a variety of other fire-related topics including fire investigation
training, data collection and analysis, and public education. Our close coordination with other agencies and the fire community
will continue. We also work with a number of organizations, such as NFPA, AGA, UL, ANSI, and ASTM on voluntary standards designed
to reduce fire hazard deaths. In addition, we work closely with these and other organizations, such as NEMA, AHAM, and ESFI,
to enhance our effectiveness in reducing fires of electrical origin.
Objective(s):
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