NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 60
SMOKE
SIGNALS
The significance extends well beyond
solving a longtime annoyance-it also
has important ramifications for life
safety. Even though few faux pas in
the fire and life safety world are as
maligned as messing with a smoke
alarm, plenty of people continue to
do so, sometimes with tragic consequences. NFPA statistics show that the
majority of the roughly 2,700 people
who die annually in residential fires in
the United States live in homes with
no smoke alarms or no working smoke
alarms. Many of the alarms, studies
have found, didn't work because they
were disabled by residents annoyed by
their squawking and were never put
back in working order.
Nuisance alarms have also taken
their toll on fire departments. In 2014,
60 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 8
U.S. fire departments responded to
almost 2.5 million false alarms, about
twice the total number of reported fires
and five times the number of structure
fires, according to an NFPA analysis.
Most were triggered by commercial
monitored connections, including residential buildings such as apartment
buildings, hotels, and dormitories.
THE MARKET RESPONDS
The issue of what to do about this
problem has confounded safety advocates for decades, whose lone hope
seemed to rest in convincing people
not to tamper with their alarms. The
more permanent solution-to make
better and more discerning alarms-
has for years been technologically
impossible. Building an alarm that will
sound only during a real fire and not
from a burning piece of toast is simple
in concept but maddeningly complex
in practice.
For as long as smoke alarms have
existed, they have been yes or no
devices: Either they detect enough
smoke to sound an alarm, or they don't.
That's true for alarms using photoelectric or ionization detection, the two
prevailing technologies on the market
today. To cut down on nuisance alarms,
the new breed of smoke alarm will
have to determine what kind of smoke
it is sensing. Not only must it have the
capability to measure precisely the
composition of smoke particles to decipher what's burning, it must then make
a judgment about whether that thing is
a threat or not.
PREVIOUS PAGE , THINKSTOCK; TOP AND FACING PAGE , UL
p A technician at UL's new smoke alarm testing facility loads alarms into a movable arm that will lower them into a testing room below.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - March/April 2018
Contents
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 1
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Contents
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 3
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 4
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 5
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 6
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 7
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 8
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 9
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 10
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 11
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 12
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 13
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 14
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 15
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 16
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 17
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 18
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 19
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 20
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 21
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 22
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 23
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 24
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 25
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 26
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 27
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 28
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 29
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 30
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 31
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 32
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 33
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 34
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 35
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 36
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 37
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 38
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 39
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 40
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 41
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 42
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 43
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 44
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 45
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 46
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 48
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 49
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 50
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 51
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 52
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 53
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 54
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 55
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 56
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 58
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 60
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 61
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NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 85
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 86
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 87
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 88
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - Cover4
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