NFPA Journal - Spring 2023 - 62

660: THE MAKING
OF A ONE-STOP
DUST STANDARD
Six standards are being consolidated
to create the new NFPA 660,
Standard for Combustible Dusts:
NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of
Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural
and Food Processing Facilities
NFPA 484, Standard for Combustible Metals
NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of
Combustible Dust
NFPA 654, Standard for the Prevention
of Fire and Dust Explosions from the
Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of
Combustible Particulate Solids
NFPA 655, Standard for Prevention of Sulfur
Fires and Explosions
NFPA 664, Standard for the Prevention of
Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and
Woodworking Facilities
In addition to the Correlating Committee on
Combustible Dusts, five technical committees
are working on the new NFPA 660:
* Technical Committee on Agricultural Dusts
* Technical Committee on Combustible
Metals and Metal Dusts
* Technical Committee on Fundamentals of
Combustible Dusts
* Technical Committee on Handling and
Conveying of Dusts, Vapors, and Gases
* Technical Committee on Wood and
Cellulosic Materials Processing
NFPA 660 is in the fall 2024 revision cycle, with
a first edition scheduled in 2025. First draft
public input closed in January; the first draft
report will be posted by October 26. Second
draft public comment closing date is January
4, 2024. The second draft report will be
posted by October 3, 2024.
For more information on the development of
NFPA 660, visit nfpa.org/660next.
62 | NFPA JOURNAL * SPRING 2023
in earnest. That included the process of helping
the committees get to know one another, which
wasn't always smooth sailing. " People on some of
the committees weren't familiar with other committees,
and the initial instinct in some cases was
'our standard is the best one, and we don't need to
adopt what other people are doing or merge the
standards,' " says Myers. " Some thought creating
NFPA 652 was enough and that anything else was
just needlessly complicating things. But what we
found in the development of NFPA 652 is that when
people from different committees actually worked
together, they realized those other people weren't as
scary or unreasonable as they thought. We've purposely
developed NFPA 660 slowly to make sure
everyone gets to provide their input, and I think
that's resulted in more buy-in. What you see now
are people who in the past might have been diametrically
opposed to each other's positions, but then
one of them will say, 'I'm a little concerned that I'm
agreeing with you, but I think you're right.' "
The six committees will remain in place to steer
the future development of the standard, Kreitman
says. " We don't want to lose the autonomy of those
individual committees, " he says. " That's one of the
things that make the NFPA standards so successful-
you have people with specialties in those areas, so
you want to ensure you're putting those documents
together by relying on their primary expertise. "
In addition to streamlining the information
and providing a one-stop standard for an array of
industries, Myers and Kreitman hope the attention
around the new NFPA 660 standard can help raise
awareness of dust hazards-a challenge that persists
even after a century of combustible dust standards,
and of notable and often tragic combustible dust
explosions. Myers' company, Exponent, conducts
small-scale lab demonstrations of explosive combustible
dust explosions and flash fires using nondairy
coffee creamer as particulate, and " it's often surprising
to people how large of a fireball you can get from
just a teaspoon of nondairy creamer, " he says-and
that includes people from industries where dust
explosions are a genuine threat.
Myers has also participated in incident investigations
involving combustible dust explosions,
including one at a facility that happened to make
nondairy coffee creamer. " When we do a test in one
of our labs and I get that smell, it reminds me of
the scene of the explosion, where that same smell
permeated the building-it sticks with you, " he
says. " I've talked to facilities where there's been a
catastrophic dust explosion and they'll say, 'We've
handled this material for 50 years and we didn't
know this could occur.' The problem isn't with the
standards-the problem is still the lack of awareness.
But anything we can do at the standards level
to improve that awareness is absolutely essential. "
SCOTT SUTHERLAND is editor of NFPA Journal.
http://www.nfpa.org/660next
NFPA Journal - Spring 2023

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