Published Mar. 1 by FEMA's US Fire Administration

NIOSH issues SCBA safety warning

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) wishes to inform users of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) that certain high-pressure aluminum seamless and aluminum composite hoop-wrapped cylinders made of aluminum alloy 6351-T6 are susceptible to sustained load cracking in the neck and should area. 

If such cracks are not detected during visual inspection, cylinder rupture can occur, especially during filling. These ruptures can result in serious injury, death, and/or property damage. The Institute is therefore recommending that these cylinders be given special attention in order to eliminate the risks associated with such cylinder ruptures. 

These affected cylinders are used on a number of NIOSH-approved SCBA and are available in a number of sizes and durations ranging from 5 to 30 minutes.

For more information, please contact NIOSH at:

1095 Willowdale Road
Morgantown, WV 26505-2888
Phone: (304) 285-5907
FAX: (304) 285-6030

The complete text of this user notice may be found on the USFA web site at http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/niosh12_99.pdf. This file (400 KBytes) is in portable document format (PDF) and requires the Acrobat Reader be installed on your computer to open it. To download the free Acrobat Reader, please visit the Adobe web site at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.

BACK TO NEWS INDEX

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

COMMENTS

Copyright © 2000 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.