ISO Focus

The Magazine of the International Organization for Standardization

Volume 1, No. 1, January 2004, ISSN 0303-805X

Tyco’s CEO on ISO standards

Securing e-business
 Contents
1 Comment Alan Bryden, ISO Secretary-General
Reaching out
2 World Scene
Highlights of events from around the world
3 ISO Scene
Highlights of news and developments from ISO members
4 Guest View
Edward D. Breen, CEO of Tyco International
6 Main Focus
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ISO Focus January 2004
Comment
Reaching out
V
oluntary standards are the
modern way to address the
complexity and the globaliza-
tion of issues which characterize our
world as it moves in the 21st century.
They crystallize and allow a sharing
of knowledge and good practices, they
support the dissemination of technol-
ogy whilst, more and more, taking
into account safety, health, environ-
mental and service-related aspects.
“ A magazine remains
a strong vehicle,
easy to consult
and refer to,
to spread the good news
and information .”
The way standards are developed
enables wide participation, based on
transparent processes, and, through
our national members, benefits from
effective dissemination to those that
will be actually applying them. The
need to associate all interested stake-
holders and the shift from national
to International Standards makes the
added value of the ISO System partic-
ularly relevant to face the challenges
of our times. This has been demon-
strated by the success and outcome of
the consultation we have conducted
in the past months in order to fuel
the update of our strategy and the
development of our strategic plan for
the Horizon 2010. ISO will strive to
be a leading platform and partner for
the production of globally and mar-
ket-relevant International Standards,
covering products, services, conform-
ity assessment and good management
and organizational practices.
One of the issues that emerged determined to continue to improve
from the consultation as being of and expand our contribution to the
prime importance was that of com- positive outcome of globalization
munication. Indeed, the growing through providing the International
diversity and size of the commu- Standards which reconcile the facili-
nity of experts, economic actors and tation of trade with social, economic
stakeholders who take part in, or are and environmental progress. Thank
affected by, standardization requires you all most sincerely. And a very
that we improve the way in which we Happy New Year to you !
communicate on the modalities, ben-
efits, rationale, trends and achieve-
ments of our collective work. We have
already extended significantly the fac-
ets of our widely visited Web site, and
made extensive use of Internet and IT
technologies for supporting and pro-
moting our activities.
But a magazine remains a
strong vehicle, easy to consult and
refer to, to spread the good news and
information. So, we have decided to
renovate ours, with a new name to
underline that we will “ focus ” on key
issues, events and achievements in
and around ISO, international stand-
Alan Bryden
ardization and related matters. We ISO Secretary-General
hope you will enjoy this new maga-
zine, which will indeed talk about all
such matters, as well as carrying con-
tributions from high-level guests and
key actors amongst our stakeholders.
If ISO Focus is primarily destined to
our members, partners and partici-
pants in our work, our ambition is to
reach out to a wider audience, since
the general call for and increased use
of International Standards broadens
the circle of those concerned. We
hope thus to better inform on their
development and effectively illustrate
their benefits, thereby gaining strong-
er support and participation.
As this first issue coincides
with the beginning of the year, I
would like to take the opportunity to
extend my good wishes and thanks
to all those who contribute to the
ISO System, confident that they are
ISO Focus January 2004 1
World Scene
UNIDO and
ISO partnership
Using standardization to
enhance industrial development
and participation in world trade
is the focus of a new partnership
formed by UNIDO and ISO to
assist developing countries and
transition economies.
The partnership was formally
established by the signing of a
memorandum of understanding
(MoU) on 2 December 2003 in
Vienna, Austria, by Carlos
Magariños, Director-General
of UNIDO (United Nations
Industrial Development
Organization), and Alan Bryden,
Secretary-General of ISO.
The MoU aims to make it
easier for developing countries
and economies in transition to
participate in and benefit from
international trade. The first
concrete measures will be the
development of training mate-
rial on standardization and
related conformity assessment
activities, and awareness-
raising through joint workshops
and seminars.
Signing of the MoU by Carlos
Magariños (left), Director-
General of UNIDO and Alan
Bryden (right), Secretary-
General of ISO.
Consumer representation
A two-year project, announced
at Consumer International’s
17 th World Congress, will
analyze the ways in which
three key global institutions –
the World Trade Organization
(WTO), ISO and Codex
Alimentarius – set the rules
and standards that govern trade
and the role that consumers
play.
2 ISO Focus January 2004
Consumers International (CI)
has launched a new programme
to examine decision-making
processes in the global market
and ways to increase effective
consumer representation.
The new project will develop
guidelines for better practice,
based on case studies from CI
member experiences in the
WTO, ISO and Codex. These
will be accompanied by a
manual analyzing national
participation in standards
setting.
For more information : www.
consumersinternational.org
ISO has just published a bro-
chure which highlights why it is
so important for consumers to
participate in the standards-
making process – see page 35.
Wireless communications
ITU (International
Telecommunication Union) in
collaboration with ISO and
ETSI (the European
Telecommunication Standards
Institute) organized a work-
shop in November 2003 offer-
ing the automotive and tele-
communication industries an
opportunity to exchange ideas
on the future of communica-
tion technologies in motor
vehicles.
Topics included various IT
systems such as navigation
systems, fleet management
systems, emergency services,
inter-vehicle communication
based on short range radars,
speech recognition, positioning
services, telematics services,
etc. Discussions were on what
global standards would be
required to favour the develop-
ment of these new technolo-
gies. Each organization will
have to review the conclusions
of the workshop (see www.
itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/
telecomauto/program.html).
ISO technical committees ISO/
TC 204, Intelligent transport
systems, and ISO/TC 22, Road
vehicles, are planning to
discuss possible initiatives and
actions with their experts.
Hydrogen technology
According to the US Depart-
ment of Energy Press Office,
the US Secretary of Energy,
Mr. Spencer Abraham, joined
by Ministers representing 14
countries and the European
Commission, signed on 20
November 2003 an agreement
formally establishing the Inter-
national Partnership for the
Hydrogen Economy (IPHE).
Representatives from Australia,
Brazil, Canada, China, the
European Commission (EC),
France, Germany, Iceland,
India, Italy, Japan, Republic of
Korea, Norway, Russia and the
United Kingdom were invited
by the USA to sign the IPHE
as an international mechanism
to coordinate hydrogen research
and hydrogen technology devel-
opment and deployment.
Mr. Randy Dey, the Chair of
ISO technical committee ISO/
TC 197, Hydrogen technolo-
gies, considers that the IPHE
cooperation could help
advance the transition to a
global hydrogen economy,
complementing the work of the
International Energy Agency
(IEA).
Mr. Dey considers that IPHE
could also play a role by facili-
tating the development of
codes and standards through
international organizations
such as ISO, the International
Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) and the World Forum for
the Harmonization of Vehicles
Regulations.
Contact Mr. Randy Dey for
more information :
rdey@ccsglobalgroup.com
International Standards
backed at WSIS
The role of International
Standards in contributing to the
development of a global
Information Society has been
recognized by the first phase of
the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS),
held in Geneva, Switzerland on
10 to 12 December 2003.
The acknowledgement is con-
tained within the Declaration
of Principles endorsed by the
Summit, where more than
11 000 participants from 176
countries were represented.
The Declaration aims to
provide a common vision of an
information society’s values,
and will assist governments in
implementing the Summit’s
Plan of Action which builds
on the common vision and
guiding principles of the
Declaration into concrete
action lines, with the view to
helping countries overcome the
digital divide.
ISO, in collaboration with IEC
and ITU-T, has worked to
ensure that in the framework
of the WSIS, the strategic role
of International Standards for
development and trade be
recognized and reflected in the
declaration issued from the
Summit. The WSIS preparation
process is an exemplary case
of cooperation among the three
organizations undertaken under
the auspices of the World
Standards Cooperation.
More information on the
WSIS, including the
Declaration and Plan of
Action, can be found on the
Summit’s Web site,
www.itu.int/wsis
ISO Scene
Welcome, Senegal ! Here is its address and details :
21, Lotissement Front de Terre
BP. 4037 DAKAR
Directeur général :
M. Barama Sarr
Tel. + 221 827 64 01
Fax + 221 827 64 12
E-mail isn@sentoo.sn

Senegal is the westernmost

The Assocation Sénégalaise de
Normalisation (ASN) has been
admitted as ISO correspondent
member for Senegal, thereby
becoming ISO’s 148 th member.
ANSI Homeland Security
Standards Panel
The American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) has
established the Homeland
Security Standards Panel
(HSSP) with a mandate to
identify existing consensus
standards or, if none exists,
assist the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and
those sectors requesting assist-
ance to accelerate development
and adoption of consensus
standards critical to homeland
security.
Its initial tasks will be to cata-
logue, promote, accelerate and
coordinate the development of
standards in Homeland Security
areas including transportation,
biometrics, cyber security, and
interoperability of emergency-
response equipment. The HSSP
will also identify and communi-
cate to governmental units the
existence of current standards
that can meet identified needs.
ISO Council has asked the
Secretary-General to engage
contacts with relevant interna-
tional organizations and ISO
members and to make an
inventory/analysis of all exist-
ing security-related ISO stand-
ards, with a view to assessing
further the needs for
International Standards for
security and the potential for
additional ISO involvement.
country on the African conti-
nent, bordering with Gambia,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali
and Mauritania and covering
196 190 km ². Dakar is the
capital city of this country of
10 580 307 inhabitants, divided
administratively into 10
regions. French is the official
language.
A progress report will be
submitted at the next meeting
of ISO Council in March 2004.
More information on HSSP is
available on the ANSI Web
site, www.ansi.org
Austria and Social
Responsibility
The Austrian Standards
Institute (ON), ISO member
for Austria, is developing a
guideline standard on how to
implement Social Responsibility
(SR) in organizations, with the
main emphasis on enterprises.
In the elaboration process sev-
eral stakeholders are involved,
including those from govern-
ment, NGOs, labour unions,
the chamber of commerce,
enterprises etc. The document
is planned to be published in
the first quarter of 2004.
Several national standards
bodies, including those for
Israel (SII), Australia (SA), the
United Kingdom (BSI), France
(AFNOR), Spain (AENOR),
Mexico (DGN), Malawi
(MBS), Japan (JSA), and oth- standards, these national
ers, have been developing SR standards provide practical
instruments for their jurisdic- experience for the development
tions. In addition to assisting of international standards.
organizations within their juris-
Austrian Standards Institute
dictions and demonstrating the
Web site : www.on-norm.at/
demand for and viability of SR
Visit to Slovenia
At the invitation of the of the European Committee for
Slovenian Institute for Standardization (CEN) and
Standardization (SIST), ISO World Standards Day 2003.
member body for Slovenia, Mr. Bryden congratulated
Mr. Alan Bryden talked about Slovenia for its economic and
“ Open and global standards social performance and the
for an inclusive information country’s understanding of the
society ” at a conference importance of international
entitled “SIST – A Part of the standardization. This was Mr.
Global Information Society ” Bryden’s first visit to Slovenia
in November 2003. as Secretary-General of ISO.
Mr. Bryden also took part in
Slovenian Institute
the celebrations of the of Standardization Web site :
Institute’s second anniversary,
www.sist.si
its admission as full member
From left to right: Mr. Carlos Ganopa, Chairman of the Board
of IPQ and President of Eurolab, Mr. Marko Jagodic̆, President
of the Electrotechnical Society of Slovenia, Mr. Bogdan Topic̆,
President of SIST, Mrs. Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha, Deputy-Managing
Director of ON, Mr. Saso Bovcon, Project Manager & PR responsi-
ble person of SIST, Mr. Alan Bryden, ISO Secretary-General,
Mr. Zeljko Puljic, Information and Communication Services
Director, ISKRATEL , Mrs. Marjetka Strle Vidali, General Director
of SIST and Mr. Jaksa Topic, Director General of DZNM.

ISO Focus January 2004 3

Guest View
Edward D. Breen
E
dward D. Breen has been
Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Tyco International
Ltd. since July 2002. Prior to join-
ing Tyco, Mr. Breen was President
and Chief Operating Officer of
Motorola from January 2002 to July
2002 ; Executive Vice President and
President of Motorola’s Networks
Sector from January 2001 to January
2002 ; Executive Vice President and
President of Motorola’s Broadband
Communication Sector from January
2000 to January 2001 ; Chairman,
President and Chief Executive
TYCO International
Officer of General Instrument
Corporation (“ GI ”) from December
1997 to January 2000 ; and, prior to
December 1997, President of GI’s
Broadband Networks Group.
Mr. Breen also serves as a director
of McLeod USA Incorporated – a
communications company that deliv-
ers local, long distance and Internet
services for homes and businesses.
ISO Focus : Mr. Breen, before we turn
our focus to your views on International
Standards, would you please briefly
describe the major businesses of Tyco
International ?
Edward D. Breen : Tyco is a diver-
sified manufacturing and service
company. It is the the world’s largest
manufacturer, installer and provider of
fire protection systems and electronic
security services, as well as the world’s
largest manufacturer and servicer of
electrical and electronic components,
and the world’s largest manufacturer
of specialty valves. Tyco also holds
strong leadership positions in dispos-
able medical products, plastics and
adhesives. Tyco operates in more than
100 countries and had fiscal 2003 rev-
enues from continuing operations of
approximately USD 37 billion.
ISO Focus : How effective are
International Standards in driving
your worldwide business ?
4 ISO Focus January 2004
Edward D. Breen : All of our business
operations function under an umbrella
of standards. We have to comply
with industry, national, regional and
International Standards for both prod-
uct safety and environmental require-
ments. Particular industries, such as
fire safety and medical products, have
a long history of product, installa-
tion and maintenance standards. A
wide variety of standards have been
developed over time to help fulfill
community needs for the minimum
requirements of products.
“ ISO standards have
the opportunity to draw
on the best ideas from
around the world. ”
As an international corporation, we
have been effective in dealing with the
multitude of standards. However, the
increasing globalization of the world
economy means that consumers are
now paying the cost of a fragmented
approach through delayed product
introductions and sometimes higher
product costs. The higher costs are
caused by having to make sometimes
minor modifications to products to
satisfy local requirements. More often
than not, these modifications result in
no obvious benefit to our customers.
They become simply another way of
achieving the same objective.
The development and use of
International Standards offers a way
to overcome the inefficiencies created
by parochial standards. It permits Tyco
to achieve better economies of scale in
manufacturing and to deliver a more
consistent product with lower produc-
tion variations.
ISO Focus : Environment, quality or
social responsibility have become
major catch phrases in more and more
organizations. How are quality and
environmental management handled
within your company ?
Edward D. Breen : Quality manage-
ment systems are a core principle for
Tyco. In areas such as medical prod-
ucts, an effective quality system is
crucial to our ability to track our entire
development, manufacturing and distri-
bution processes. At the same time, our
activities must be environmentally sus-
tainable. Our long-term future is tied to
our ability to not only produce products
that meet the needs of our customers,
but that are also sympathetic to the envi-
ronment. We believe that this is consist-
ent with the goals of our customers.
ISO Focus : We understand that the
Tyco Fire & Security, for example,
has over 150 people participating in
350 standards committees around the
world. Can you please comment on
the benefits of participation in the ISO
standards-making process ?
Edward D. Breen : Tyco has a strong
and long-standing commitment to
standards development. The develop-
ment of International Standards and
their acceptance as an alternative to
local standards is an important com-

petitive mechanism. Suddenly, local
manufacturers can become exporters.
That fosters competition and keeps
all parts of our business focused on
improving our products and processes.
For Tyco, participation in the develop-
ment of ISO standards enables us to
bring our technical experts together
with experts from other countries. We
get the chance to discuss and develop
new product requirements. Far from
being a watered-down compromise,
ISO standards have the opportunity to
TYCO International
petitors. An open, competitive market
expands an industry and prevents
industry participants from becoming
lazy cost maximizers. New competi-
tors and attention to cost control are
good for our customers and good for
our business in the long term.
ISO Focus : What new international
“ We need to have standards would Tyco like to see com-
standards against which ing out of ISO ? Are there areas for
our customers can which Tyco would like to see more or
TYCO International
different ISO standards ?
benchmark us.”
Edward D. Breen : Apart from the
ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 series, ISO
standards have traditionally focused
on equipment requirements. These
draw on the best ideas from around the will remain important, but standards
world. for services will become increasingly
We also like to foster competition important as trade in services is further
and do not want local standards to globalized. Whether it be standards
be a way of tilting the playing field for corporate governance, accounting
or restricting fair and vigorous com- or software development, we need
petition. Where industries have used to have standards against which our
technical barriers or regulations to try customers can benchmark us. These
to limit competition or restrict entry standards will also be important as
into the market, these efforts have his- governments move to liberalize trade
torically failed. Either market growth in services and ISO can put in place an
becomes restricted or substitutes are international framework to support this
developed by more innovative com- liberalization.
ISO Focus January 2004 5
Main Focus
F
ire safety affects us all. For
many years, buildings have

Safety
been designed and built according
to an established set of rules intended
to meet any and all circumstances.
However, due to the ever-increasing
costs and the increasing height and
density of modern construction, build-

and tall
ings are beginning to be designed with
more consideration given to how the
pieces work together as a whole. For
instance, the fire resistance of one part
of a construction may not necessarily
need to be as great as others.

buildings
ISO realized this and began
working on new sets of rules and
standards in the early 1990’s. The
World Trade Center attack served to
put the spotlight on this work and
bring the attention of those not nor-
mally associated with these types of
concerns. Questions concerning the
level of robustness to which build-
ings should be designed have been
raised and discussed since shortly
after the event. For many issues, there
is a definite relationship between cost
and effectiveness. Should we design
buildings to withstand a severe impact
which may be of very low probability
of occurring ? Probably not. However,
should we design routes and methods
of getting people out of buildings
which have experienced a catastrophic
event ? Of course we should.
This issue of ISO Focus presents
many of the ideas and projects being
worked on across a wide spectrum of
ISO technical committees and other
groups involved in this work. Fire safe-
ty engineering, including construction
details, detection and alarm systems,
extinguishment systems, egress routes
and others, is increasingly being used
in the design of public buildings.
Liaison between and within the many
technical committees and other groups
involved in this work is critical if sat-
isfactory solutions are to be developed
with efficiency and within a reasonable
amount of time.
It is hoped then, that this ISO
Focus will serve two purposes : to give
the layman an overview of the work
being done by ISO in the area of fire
safety ; and to help familiarize mem-

6 ISO Focus January 2004

bers of the various internal groups with
the progress being made by those in Constructing
related fields. Perhaps the reader will
be surprised at the number of different
the tall
industries involved in the development buildings
of a safer future. Remember, fire safety
is a concern common to all nations that of tomorrow
build multiple-storey public buildings.
The solutions will be most efficiently
found by a global approach with input By Dr. Wim Bakens, Secretary
from as many nations as possible. ISO General, CIB, and member of
is in a unique position to supply this
ISO TMB TAG 8, Building
service.

C
IB – the International Council
for Research and Innovation
in Building and Construction 1)
– was one of the two international
co-sponsors of the international con-
ference “ Strategies for Performance
in the Aftermath of the World Trade
Center ” that took place in October
2003 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Over 200 experts from all over
the world discussed issues related to
the safety of tall buildings, with a
focus on questions such as :
• Should such buildings indeed be
made safer ? Should especially
fire safety and structural safety be
enhanced and should the respective
national and international codes
and standards be re-written to
include substantially higher safety
requirements ?
• To what extent can the proper
management of such buildings in
general and the management of
behaviour of its occupants and oth-
ers (like firefighters) in emergency
situations contribute to enhancing
safety ?
• What new technologies (and design
concepts) are being developed that
may contribute to enhancing safety
situations ?
1) CIB is an association with members from
all over the world who are involved in the
programming, funding, execution, transfer and
application of building and construction related
research and technology development. CIB
aims for enhancing international information
exchange and cooperation between its members
and other stakeholders. Its head office is in the
Netherlands. Information on CIB can be found
at www.cibworld.nl.
Kuala Lumpur Petronas Towers
• Which national programmes have
been developed and implemented
since 9/11 and what outcomes are
available or will be in the near
future ?
My very simplified and some-
what personal version of some of the
conclusions from the many discussions
between experts that took place at this
conference, is this :
• A multitude of technologies (and
design concepts) that, if applied,
enable substantially improved safe-
ty in buildings is already available.
Actually applying such technolo-
gies in many cases will require
extra investment. In addition there
is always the need for developing
new safety-enhancing technologies
that are more cost-effective.
• There is the need for codes and
standards, but also for design and
engineering guidelines, in which
aspects of especially fire and struc-
tural safety engineering are inte-
grated, as opposed to, for example,
separate codes for fire engineering
and for structural engineering that
may encompass sometimes con-
flicting requirements.

ISO Focus January 2004 7

Main Focus
• A major problem for decision-
makers on such extra investments
concerns the proper definition
of safety requirements and the
methodology to measure whether
design and construction con-
cepts fulfill such requirements.
This assumes that the so-called per-
formance approach in building and
construction, that provides a con-
sistent methodology for the defini-
tion and measurement of building
performance requirements, may
offer a solution to this problem.
• There is a need for a worldwide,
publicly accessible system that
provides experts with information
on the different aspects of safety
in tall buildings, including, for
example, information on codes
and standards, best practices, new
technologies and design concepts,
products, etc.
How CIB helps promote
safety
CIB is looking how best to con-
tribute to solving the problem of safety
in tall buildings in response to these
conclusions.
CIB initiated and facilitated
the Tall Buildings Summit in April
2002 in London, at which high-level
representatives of main stakeholders
concerning the issue of safety in tall
buildings came to an agreement on the
main issues to be addressed and on a
framework for doing so in the inter-
national R&D environment. In con-
junction with the conference in Kuala
Lumpur, a second such Tall Buildings
Summit took place. The outcome of
these summits will give guidance to
national and international research
funding and programming organiza-
tions. CIB is studying involvement
in a possible next international Tall
Buildings Conference on safety in tall
buildings.
In 2001 CIB established the
CIB Task Group on Tall Buildings
with Associate Prof. Dr. Faridah
Shafii of the University of Malaysia
as its Coordinator, with the objec-
tive of, among others, providing an
8 ISO Focus January 2004
international forum for the exchange
of experiences and information on
planning, design, construction, opera-
tion and management of tall buildings
and initiating agendas for international
research.
The topics covered include :
• Fire Engineering – fire safety ;
systems on mass evacuation of
high density areas ; smoke egres-
sion
• Structural Engineering – impacts
of massive fire and blast on struc-
tural integrity ; performance-based
issues ; design for robustness ; strat-
egies to improve building perform-
ance during life threatening inci-
dents
• Planning and Design – vertical
transportation and integrated build-
ing controls ; integration of plan-
ning and design for safety of occu-
pants and security of buildings and
their infrastructure
• Management – impacts on facil-
ities and assets ; safety and risk
assessment on buildings ; quality
assurance and insurance and rein-
surance
• Standards and Regulations –
impacts of new regulatory systems
upon future designs and construc-
tion ; developments of guidance
documents
“ Safety in tall buildings
is not a national issue
in one or a few countries
only, it is a worldwide
issue.”
In addition to CIB’s Task Group
on Tall Buildings – that has a more
integral approach to all aspects that
are especially relevant to tall buildings
– there are about 60 other CIB com-
missions that focus on defined issues.
Two justify special mentioning in this
context:
• TG43 on Megacities, that amongst
others addresses the positioning of
tall buildings in urban environment
and its impact ;
• W014 on Fire, that addresses
issues related to fire engineering
in buildings in general and that has
much to offer to dealing with fire
safety and risk issues in the context
of design, construction and man-
agement of tall buildings.
A multi-disciplinary
and multi-stakeholders
approach
Some CIB Member organiza-
tions who are especially active in this
area, including the National Institute
for Standards and Technology, (NIST),
and the Council for Tall Buildings and
Urban Habitat, and second interna-
tional co-sponsor of the Tall Buildings
Conference in Kuala Lumpur, have
begun discussions aiming at the devel-
opment of a worldwide and public
accessible Tall Buildings Information
System. It is envisaged that in the first
half of 2004, the first announcement
on the availability of such system can
be made.
Enhancing the safety situation
in buildings in general and in tall
buildings in particular requires a multi-

disciplinary and multi-stakeholders
approach, in which the research and
academic community is to play an
important and pro-active role. It is
hoped that CIB can make a contribu-
tion to achieving and optimization of
such role.
This will help achieve an
optimal international cooperation on
research and technology development
in support of enhancing safety in build-
ings, such that unnecessary duplication
of stand-alone work in different coun-
tries can be prevented, because if there
is one thing we all learned in the Tall
Building Conference in Kuala Lumpur,
it is that safety in tall buildings is not a
national issue in one or a few countries
only, it is a worldwide issue.
About the author
Wim Bakens
is Secretary
General, The
International
Council on
Research and
Innovation in
Building and
Construction
(CIB),
headquartered
in Rotterdam,
The Netherlands. CIB’s mission is
to simulate and facilitate international
exchange and collaboration in areas
concerning building and construction.
Dr. Bakens’ professional background is in
Architectural Engineering and in Research
and Management Consultancy in the
building and construction sector.
Vision and
management
By Prof. Geoff Cox, Fire
Division, Building Research
Establishment, United Kingdom,
former Chair, ISO/TC 92, Fire
Safety, from 1995 to 2003
F
ire is an ever-present threat
whether we realize it or not.
When we relax at home on our
sofas, for example, we are most likely
sitting on materials that have locked
within their chemical bonds enough
energy to power 1 000 “ electric fire ”
space heaters. What makes them com-
fortable to sit on and warm to the touch
can also make them easy to ignite. All
it needs is for the stored chemical
energy to be unlocked by a smoulder-
BRE
ing cigarette or a dropped match. The
heat and momentum developed from
such a fire are awesome, causing the
possibility of a life-threatening situa-
tion to develop very rapidly.
The discipline of fire
safety engineering
Since it is very difficult to elim-
inate the prospect of fire completely,
standards are needed to ensure that the
products we use are safe and that, if
they do become involved in fire, they
perform in an acceptable fashion.
There are two technical com-
mittees within ISO that are devoted
solely to fire ; TC 21, Equipment for
fire protection and fire fighting, and
the TC I formerly chaired, TC 92, Fire
Safety. There are many others which
also have a fire interest. These include,
for example, TC 8, Ships and marine
technology, TC 38, Textiles, TC 61,
Plastics and TC 136, Furniture. TC
21’s scope complements TC 92’s,
concentrating on fire detection and
suppression systems rather than on the
phenomenon of fire itself.
When I took over the chair of
ISO/TC 92 in 1995 it was a time of
considerable change for the commit-
Safety
and tall
buildings
tee and indeed for
the fire safety community more gener-
ally. The ISO Technical Management
Board (TMB) had just given the tech-
nical committee a new title and with
it substantially greater responsibilities.
The change was necessary to address
the needs for standards production in
support of the emerging discipline
known as Fire Safety Engineering.
The title was changed from “ Fire Tests
on building materials components and
structures,” which it had been since
1961, to simply “ Fire safety ”.
The use of Fire Safety Engineering in
airport terminal design to demonstrate
that sufficient time is available for
passengers to evacuate to a place of
safety in the event of a “ design fire.”
A new, more scientific, ap-
proach to providing fire safety had
been evolving from the successes of
many years of research. This had been
given particular impetus by the world-
wide trend to performance-based regu-
latory reform, particularly in the con-
struction sector.
Regulatory bodies are
big “ customers ”
Because of the seriousness of
product failure, dominant amongst the
“ customers ” for fire safety standards
are the regulatory bodies of various
kinds. These range from the interna-
tional regulators such as IMO (the
International Maritime Organization)
who use ISO fire standards directly
through to national government build-
ing regulators who often use them in
some modified form.
The more flexible approach to
regulatory control recasts the require-
ISO Focus January 2004 9
Main Focus
ments of regulations in functional
rather than prescriptive form, allowing
a variety of alternative solutions to be
found which satisfy the requirements.
Much more freedom is provided to
engineer a solution that will meet or
surpass the requirements of the regu-
lation. A properly engineered solu-
tion should be able to provide safe,
cost-effective and hopefully aesthetic
design.
It was clear that new stand-
ards would be needed to support Fire
Safety Engineering but it was also
obvious that any new standards would
have a much greater relevance to just
the “ tests ” or the “ buildings ” of the
TC’s original title. Tests only form
part of the new portfolio of standards
required, and engineering practice has
a utility for any form of structure, say,
ships or aircraft.
A decision was needed as to
whether there should be a new TC
devoted solely to the engineered
approach or whether, as was the
TMB’s final decision, it should
become a constituent part of an exist-
ing TC. Most of the experts and advo-
cates of the engineering approach
already resided in TC 92, and so it
was decided to confirm the addition
10 ISO Focus January 2004
of a new “ Fire Safety Engineering
Subcommittee to TC 92 ”.
The need to review
the strategy
As a result of the change, TC
92 exploited the opportunity to “ take
stock ”. We appointed a “ Groupe des
Sages ” to undertake a thorough review
of our way forward to include wide-
spread consultation on our successes
and failures to date, on the market
needs for our work and the impact on
our aims and objectives.
This was extremely valuable,
leading us to anticipate the more busi-
ness-like approaches to standards-
writing now required of all technical
committees. And, very prescient as
it has turned out in the wake of the
World Trade Center collapse, to begin
the process of development of new
approaches to standardization in sup-
port of fire engineering.
Before I discuss this further,
some background is needed on the
work of the TC, which perhaps is
different from many TC’s in that it is
genuinely “ horizontal,” impinging on
nearly every aspect of human endeav-
our. It does not address any particular
In the developed world,
fire tragically claims each
year the lives of between
ten and twenty people for
ever y million of its popu-
lation. The economic costs
are enormous, with direct
property losses amounting
typically to around 0,2 %
GDP. When this is added
to the consequential loss-
es resulting from fire (e.g.
lost sales, equipment hire,
overtime working etc.) and
the costs of the emergency
ser vices, fire insurance
and fire protection provi-
sion, the total approaches
1 % of GDP annually.
product family or range, instead it
focuses on the performance of those
aspects of any product or procedure
that has a bearing on fire safety.
Following the recommendations
of our Groupe des Sages, we restruc-
tured the TC, keeping four subcommit-
tees but ensuring that the concerns of
fire safety engineering were central to
our future standards development pro-
gramme. The four subcommittees are :
Fire Initiation and Growth (SC 1), Fire
Containment (SC 2) and Fire Threat to
People and the Environment (SC 3) in
addition to the one specializing in Fire
Safety Engineering (SC 4).
We also replaced the Chairman’s
Advisory Working Group with a
Technical Programme Management
Group to ensure proactive top-down
management of the TC’s work pro-
gramme. One of the complaints we
heard during our consultation process
was that we had been too slow and too
often been diverted by “ bottom-up ”
initiatives of individual researchers.
We have introduced a new review
process that places emphasis on both
market need and scientific progress in
any new work item proposals.
This group also takes a coor-
dination role with other international

bodies having a responsibility for
fire e.g. the IEC (the International
Electrotechnical Committee) ; the IMO
(International Maritime Organization),
the International Council for Research
and Innovation in Building and
Construction, the Society for Fire
Protection Engineers, as well as other
ISO TCs.
Tests and the real world
Our traditional standards evalu-
ate, for example, how easy it is to ignite
a product or how much that product
contributes extra “ fuel ” and heat to
an initiating fire once it is involved.
Any extra heat and fuel generated
clearly causes the fire to propagate
much more rapidly than if the product
were simply “ inert ”. Another attribute
that is evaluated by our standard test
methods is the possible failure of struc-
tural elements exposed to fire with the
objective of minimizing the possibility
of the collapse of complete structures.
There are also standards that allow the
evaluation of the toxic threat of fire to
both people and the environment.
These standards have served
us very well and continue to do so.
However not all provide the kind of
quantitative data that can be used by
engineers to perform holistic assess-
ments of fire safety allowing them
to weigh alternative fire protection
strategies.
The difficulty with many tra-
ditional standardized test methods
for such use is that they only give
information on the performance of the
product ‘ in the test ’ and not ‘ in real-
ity ’. Often they simply supply pass or
fail information only. Such tests are
useful to rank products in the test,
maybe for quality assurance purposes,
but they do not provide quantitative
information that can be used by the
engineer. Furthermore relative ‘ suc-
cess ’ in the test does not necessarily
ensure relative ‘ success ’ in the ‘ real
world ’ application environment.
The expectation is that with a
new testing approach coupled coupled
to a predictive capability to calculate
both ‘ test ’ and ‘ real world ’ exposure
scenarios, then it should be possible
to assess performance for a full range
of practical possibilities. Of course,
the ‘ real world ’ comes in too many
combinations and variations for all
eventualities to be covered but as in
any other form of engineering design,
appropriate design scenarios can be
identified.
“ Our new review process
emphasizes market needs
and scientific progress. ”
For example, would the ‘real
world’ malevolent event of an air-
craft being deliberately flown into a
skyscraper have been anticipated by
building designers before 2001? The
structural engineers who designed the
World Trade Center towers did consid-
er and accommodate the possibility of
an accidental aircraft impact. However
the consequences for fire safety were
not. Instead the well-tried and tested
local building regulatory require-
ments calling upon traditional fire test
methods were considered adequate. It
Safety
and tall
buildings
is doubtful that
anyone ever considered the possibility
of a fire being started by aviation fuel
simultaneously covering the whole of
one floor plate, let alone several.
With our current knowledge,
not available at the time the World
Trade Center was constructed, we can
design for such an eventuality if we
choose. Whether we should is for a
discussion outside of this article !
The whole issue of the validity
of the fire tests used to appraise the
performance of structural elements in
buildings has come under scrutiny fol-
lowing the collapse of the New York
World Trade Center. My colleague,
Deg Priest, Chairman of TC 92/SC 2,
Fire containment, addresses this issue
specifically in a separate article in this
issue.
Follow our progress
In 1999, the first Fire Safety
Engineering documents were pub-
lished by our FSE subcommittee (SC
4) as an eight-part Technical Report,
ISO/TR 13387, Parts 1-8. These are
currently being extended and devel-
oped as full standards. We are also well
advanced in drafting new “ Standards
for standards ” documents that we will
use to deliver the next generation of
standards that can be used for a full
engineering analysis.
The very difficult task still fac-
ing us is the development of new, or the
modification of existing, standardized
fire tests to supply the kind of infor-
mation required. This will take time
but we have made an important start.
We look to our international partners
to assist us with this. The fire commis-
sion of the International Council for
Research and Innovation in Building
and Construction, CIB W014, which
has a remit for pre-normative research,
will be particularly important for this
purpose.
Prior to the collapse of the
World Trade Center towers we might
have expected the innovation to occur
first in our standards for “ flammabili-
ty ” or toxic potency. However, follow-
ing the tragic events of 9/11, the oldest
ISO Focus January 2004 11
Main Focus
standards in our portfolio which con-
cern “ fire resistance ” (the response of
structures to fire) have been propelled
to the top of our agenda.
Progress with our developments
can be followed on both the ISO Web
site : www.iso.org and the ISO/TC 92
homepage at : www.bre.co.uk/iso.
About the author
Geoff Cox is
urrently Techni-
al Advisor to
he Management
Board of the
Building
Research Estab-
ishment’s Fire
Division. He
etired as Chair
f the Interna-
ional Standards
Technical Committee on Fire Safety
(ISO/TC 92) and as Research Director for
BRE in May 2003. Working at the United
Kingdom Fire Research Station for 30
years on all aspects of fire safety science,
he pioneered the application of computa-
tional fluid dynamics to fire problems. He
is currently a Trustee for the International
Association for Fire Safety Science.
Author of over one hundred scientific
papers and three books on fire, he also
hosted the first CIB Global Leaders
Summit on Tall Buildings at BRE in
the United Kingdom in 2002.
12 ISO Focus January 2004
Fire resistance
tests
By Mr. Deggary N. Priest,
Chair ISO/TC 92/SC 2, Fire
containment (USA)
C
oncerns over the relevance of
the fire exposure contained
in fire resistance test proce-
dures are increasingly being voiced.
However, there is no such thing as
a “ typical ” fire. All are different,
depending upon details such as fire
load, available oxygen, humidity, etc.
When selecting the temperature rise
curve for the “ standard ” fire exposure,
fire professionals chose one that rose
quickly and then slowly increased in
severity until the end of the test. The
intent of ISO 834, Fire-resistance tests
– Elements of building construction, is
to enable the comparison of construc-
tions, with regard to their performance
under very similar fire exposures. The
tests are performed under strict control
of such variables as specimen size,
restraint, loading and other details.
Our answers to
questions on test
methods
Is the test “ highly artificial ” ?
Certainly, while no single fire expo-
sure can reproduce the wide range of
exposures to be expected in accidental
fires, the exposure is based on a wide
variety of full-scale room burns done
approximately 80 years ago. Yes, the
materials of which the typical room
contents are made have changed since
then, as have other details such as win-
OMEGA POINT LABORATORIES
dow size, which dramatically affects
fire ventilation. Most fires, however,
build up much slower than ISO 834 fire
exposure, burn at their maximum and
then begin to die out. ISO 834 expo-
sure however, continues to increase for
as long as the test is continued. This is
really the only way to determine the
response of a fire barrier to an on-going
fire situation. Is it “ artificial ? ” No it is
not. Is it a simulation of the results of
actual full-scale fire scenarios ? Yes,
it is. Does a given fire resistance rat-
ing achieved in the test guarantee that
the same assembly will contain a real
fire for the same period of time ? Due
to the randomness of real fires, that
equivalency cannot be assumed.
“ Current test methods
tell us how the assembly
will perform under
the specific conditions
of the test. ”
The impetus for reviewing ISO
834 standard is, as has been previ-
ously mentioned, to satisfy the needs
of the professional fire safety engineer
(FSE). Has there been evidence that
the test, as performed up to now is
inadequate ? No, there has not. In fact,
our experience during the last 80 years
has demonstrated a marked decrease in
catastrophic failure of structures con-
structed in consideration of the fire test
results. The whole drive to change the
way buildings are constructed is based
on the need to engineer the entire struc-
ture as a package. It is envisioned that
the FSE calculations will be based upon
properties or characteristics of fire bar-
riers that are derived from one or more
test methods. These tests will exhibit

many of the features of the current ISO
834 test method, but with additional
data outputs. This approach would
differ from the current method of pre-
determining that all fire barriers will be
qualified for a specific fire resistance
rating. So, it is our opinion that the
manner in which results are utilized in
the design of a building will very likely
be different than they are today.
What do we learn from
current test methods?
Do the current test methods tell
us how an assembly will perform under
all fire conditions ? Obviously not. They
only tell us how that assembly will per-
form under the specific conditions of
the test. The standard does not attempt
to compare the results of a fire resist-
ance test of a given time period with the
performance of that assembly in a real
fire scenario of the same period. This
is a common misconception among
those with insufficient knowledge in
the use of fire test results. ISO/TR
834-3, Fire-resistance tests – Elements
of construction – Part 3 : Commentary
on test method and test data applica-
tion, clearly states the relationship
between fire resistance and building
fires. In considering this relationship
it is necessary to understand that the
determination of fire resistance is by
means of a complete test procedure.
When making comparisons with build-
ing fires, attention is usually focussed
on the time-temperature curve and its
relation to the temperatures and growth
rates achievable in “ real ” compartment
fires under various fire scenarios.
The test is used to qualify build-
ing structures so that they provide the
requisite level of safety in fire. This is
achieved by applying a fire resistance
test result through some code or pre-
scriptive document which will deter-
mine the performance needed in a given
situation. Adequacy of the approach is
monitored by practical feedback which
generally means avoidance of an unac-
ceptable failure rate.
The result of the test is stated in
terms of a fire-resistance classification
or rating expressed as a period of time
Fire resistance tests, From top to
bottom : Cable penetrations is a test
where electrical cables penetrate
through a floor assembly with a
pre-qualified fire resistance to deter-
mine if the fire penetration seal (the
material that seals around the cables)
has maintained the fire resistance of
the floor ; a fire door, shown here fail-
ing, since flaming is not allowed on
the unexposed face ; a wall test ; the
ISMA (Intermediate Scale Multi-story
Apparatus) tests the propensity of cur-
tain walls to spread flame from floor-to-
floor on the outside of a tall building.
OMEGA POINT LABORATORIES
Safety
and tall
buildings
for which certain
criteria are satisfied.
This period of time represents
a relative ranking of performance and
cannot be related directly to a particu-
lar building situation. It is important to
recognize this transformation from an
arbitrary time base to the engineering
performance of buildings in fire, made
through the building codes.
The actual performance achieved
in a fire-resistance test is intimately
connected with the test conditions, the
extent to which the test models the
building, and the criteria applied to
determine failure. A small change in
conditions for failure, particularly with
respect to integrity and thermal insula-
tion, could have a significant effect on
the rating obtained.
In particular, the time recorded
in the fire-resistance test in respect
of these criteria bears no direct
relationship to the failure times in
real fires. This has been recognized
in principle from the inception of the
1 2
test ), ).
Educational issues
to address
ISO/TC 92/SC 2, Fire contain-
ment, has not acknowledged that the
testing method is in need of a complete
overhaul. As our ISO/TC 92 Business
Plan clearly states, the current stand-
ards will be reworked to supply input
to the FSE documents, as soon as they
are completed.
These tests also tell us little
about the overall reaction of a com-
plete structure to a fire insult at a con-
centrated location. They do, however,
allow us to draw a “ line in the sand ”
with regard to the relative fire perform-
ance of the items and constructions
tested. This is, essentially, the heart of
the Prescriptive Standards method of
constructing buildings. For instance,
requiring that all fire barriers (walls,
1) Bletzacker, R.W. “ The Role of Research
and Testing in Building Code Regulation ”.
News in Engineering. The Ohio State
University, 1962.
2) BS 476-10:1983, Guide to the Principles
and Application of Fire Testing.
ISO Focus January 2004 13
Main Focus
floors, doors, etc) have a fire endur-
ance rating of two hours. Years of
experience throughout the world have
shown this method to be an effective
approach to fire safety.
The use of prescriptive stand-
ards, while being extremely effective,
is also often pessimistic and hence to
a degree, “ overkill.” This can lead to
excessive construction costs. Using
Fire Safety Engineering allows for the
entire structure to be designed in light
of the full breadth of safety require-
ments (structural, fire loads available,
personnel occupancy, egress, etc.).
These requirements vary from area to
area, and consequently, the amount of
fire resistance required is allowed to
vary also. If the threat of fire expo-
sure is low, then the fire resistance of
barriers and contents can be reduced.
Conversely, if the fire load, personnel
egress needs or structural strength in
a specific area is expected to be high,
then the fire resistance of barriers and
contents will be increased accordingly.
Fire safety engineering is
still in its infancy
We are currently heavily involved
in generating ISO standards that will
describe how FSE is accomplished.
Fire safety engineering is increasingly
being looked to in support of perform-
ance-based national regulations in
many countries throughout the world
and ISO/TC 92/SC 4 has generated
ISO/TR 13387, an eight-part technical
report which outlines the fundamental
methodologies. It is anticipated that
this new field of engineering will rely
heavily on computer models, expert
knowledge and past experience with
our current methods. While significant
progress has already been made in this
area, the final standards and technical
reports upon which the new discipline
will rely may not be completed for
another seven to ten years.
When and how the fire resist-
ance standards might be affected by the
advent of FSE is not possible to predict
at this time. First, ISO/TC 92/SC 4 must
develop the goals and methods to use in
order to achieve those goals. Then, the
14 ISO Focus January 2004
subcommittees that monitor and main-
tain the fire tests will adapt their test
methods to become useful tools in the
FSE environment and supply the neces-
sary information in a common format.
ISO/TC 92/SC 2 has already begun a
critical review of ISO 834 test method-
ology, including an examination of the
current and possible future parameters
that the test method can supply. We
must be cautious as we move forward
with this issue, since an 80-year-old
database of testing exists, which has not
been shown to be invalid. Hopefully, a
way forward will be determined that
builds and relies on the tremendous
amount of existing information.
About the author
Deggary Priest
holds his bach-
elor’s and mas-
ter’s degrees in
Chemistry from
California State
University at
Hayward. He is
President and
CEO of Omega
Point Laborato-
ries in Elmen-
dorf, Texas, USA, and is responsible for
the overall testing operations, as well as
designing and fabricating fire testing
equipment for both the company and
clients. He has been involved with fire
testing since 1976, and has designed,
constructed and operated fire test furnaces
for Southwest Research Institute,
Commercial Testing, and Weyerhaeuser
Co. He has also worked as a research
chemist at Standard Research Institute.
He is a member of ASTM Committee
E-5 on Fire Standards, IEEE Power Engi-
neering Society Insulated Conductors
Committee, and ISO/TC 92 subcommittee
SC 2, Fire containment, which he chairs.
From ISO 7010:2003.

• Evacuation systems – to alert
building occupants to a fire through
the use of voice messages and other
aural and visual signals, and to
assist with the safe evacuation of
occupants.
• Passive systems such as fire iso-
TYCO International
lated egress paths and fire isolated
compartments – to delay the spread
of a fire long enough to permit safe
occupant evacuation or effective
suppression.
Detection and The fire detection and alarm system is
alarms a critical life safety system for building
occupants. Early warning smoke and
fire detectors, placed on ceilings, ducts
and other concealed spaces, are often
By Mr. Peter Parsons, the first devices to detect a fire. Fire
Chair ISO/TC 21/SC 3, Fire growth can be so rapid that it is essen-
detection and fire alarm systems tial to initiate other safety systems to
effectively manage the situation. In a
(Australia)
fire engineering design, the fire detec-
tion system may be required to initiate
Safety
and tall
buildings
Optimizing the
design and engineering
of equipment
There have never been any
international equipment standards
for components of a fire detection
and alarm system. Designers had to
refer to local equipment standards in
a fire safety design. This has meant
that there was a need to understand
the performance characteristics of the
local equipment and adjust design
models and calculations to suit. New
International Standards will set com-
mon performance criteria across the
globe. Designers will be able to use
their expertise in all world markets
according to ISO standards. This
will lead to improved understanding
amongst the engineering profession
and to better design tools to optimize

F
ire safety in buildings is increas- the engineering outcome.
ingly taking an engineering smoke hazard management systems, We have worked hard in our
design approach, rather than the remote monitoring equipment and committee and are proud of our
traditional prescriptive approach, building evacuation systems. achievements, the results of which
to deliver the safety objectives of are provided in the following ISO
regulators required to meet community standards:
Inputs into the fire engineering process
expectations. With the increasing intro-
produce a safe building outcome.
duction of performance-based building
codes throughout the world, building
designers and engineers are looking for
Evacuation System
innovative and cost-effective methods
of ensuring the safety of building occu-
pants in the event of a fire. A number Lift Management
of systems act as inputs into the fire System
engineering design process, including:
• Fire detection systems – to pro-
vide early detection of a fire. Remote Monitoring
Safe buildings

• Remote monitoring of the fire

detection system – to ensure early
intervention by fire fighters. Fire Detection Fire Engineering
leads to
and Alarm System Design
• Sprinkler systems, portable fire
extinguishers and hose reels – to
suppress and extinguish a fire once Fire Suppression
at the flaming stage. Systems

• Lift management systems – to

assist fire fighters to gain access to Smoke Management
the seat of the fire. System
• Smoke management systems – to
extract smoke from affected areas
and ensure smoke does not migrate Passive Fire Systems
to unaffected areas.

ISO Focus January 2004 15

Main Focus
ISO 7240-2, Control and indicating
equipment
ISO 7240-4, Power supply equipment
and
ISO 7240-7, Point type smoke detectors.

Together, equipment comply-

ing with these standards forms a mini-
mum fire detection system that can
be used to provide the essential early
fire detection and warning to build-
ing occupants. But TC 21/SC 3 has
not stopped there. A new Technical
Report (ISO/TR 7240-14) provides
guidance on the content of fire detec-
tion system design, installation and
maintenance standards.
New standards for heat detec-
tors (ISO 7240-5) and smoke alarms
TYCO International

(ISO 12239, Fire detection and fire

alarm systems – Smoke alarms) have
passed their final ballot and are being
prepared for publication. A multisen-
sor detector standard (ISO 7240-15),
incorporating requirements for both a
smoke sensor and a heat sensor is at
the final ballot stage – adding to the
equipment available for an engineer to
use. In addition, drafts covering carbon
monoxide fire detectors (ISO 7240-6)
and manual call points (ISO 7240-11)
are through the DIS (Draft International
Standard) stage. This makes a total of
nine standards published or where
completion is imminent.
Substantial benefits
Let’s take the example of ISO
12239:2003, Fire detection and fire
alarm systems – Smoke alarms, that
provides manufacturers with a com-
mon set of functions – along with
requirements, test methods, perfor-
mance criteria and manufacturer’s
instructions – that are to be provided
on all smoke alarms.
According to the NFPA
(National Fire Protection Association),
15 of every 16 homes in the USA has
at least one smoke alarm and since
becoming available to consumers in
the 1970s, the home fire death rate has
been reduced by half.
However, one of the main dif-
ficulties manufacturers face is the
16 ISO Focus January 2004
different audible warning signals as
well as the different labelling, con-
nection and battery requirements for
smoke alarms practised in different
countries. These difficulties would be
drastically reduced if smoke alarm
manufacturers could follow one set of
requirements and the criteria accepted
in all markets.
“There have never been
any international
equipment standards
for components of a fire
detection and alarm
system.”
This common set of require-
ment to enable a manufacturer to man-
ufacture to a single standard, enabling
producers to obtain better economies of
scale and reduce prices to consumers.
They will be able to offer lower prices
if they receive larger orders for similar
types of smoke alarms, and customers
will gain confidence in knowing that
the smoke alarm they own has been
manufactured in accordance with
international best practice.
The requirement to use the
‘evacuate’ signal specified in ISO
8201, Acoustics – Audible emergency
evacuation signal, is an important
adoption in ISO 12239 because it is the
same signal pattern used in a number
of countries to evacuate commercial
buildings. The adoption of the signal
in ISO 12239 means that households
will become used to recognizing the
signal so when they hear the same sig-
nal in a commercial building, factory
or shopping centre they will know that
they should immediately evacuate the
premises.
The 1-1-1 objective
Unlike other industries, the fire
detection industry had no international
equipment standards and therefore
countries did not need to consider their
obligations under the World Trade
Organization’s Technical Barriers to
Trade (WTO/TBT) Agreement for
this equipment. With the publication
of International Standards, countries
around the world will be under WTO
Treaty obligations to permit the use
of equipment complying with the new
ISO standards.
These ISO standards and the
WTO/TBT Agreement will help drive
the strategic objective of 1-1-1, that is,

• 1 Standard for fire detection and
alarm system equipment.
• 1 Test to ensure the equipment
conforms to the requirements of
the standard.
• 1 Conformance acceptance system,
where any country can accept the
conformance assessment under-
taken in a test laboratory.
The new ISO standards will also
permit the equivalent CEN Committee
(TC 72) to adopt them, with the minor
addition to satisfy the requirements of
the European Construction Products
Directive. The important opportu-
nity for a single International Standard
should not be missed. The benefits
to the community of designs that are
more reliable and have a higher degree
of integrity, will directly result from an
engineering community that is better
educated about the performance char-
acteristics of standardized products.
The benefits for manufacturers to be
able to produce a single product for
the global market will lower produc-
tion costs. This will feed through the
supply chain to lower the overall costs
of buildings.
About the author
Peter Parsons
(pparsons@
tycoint.com) has
been a delegate
to ISO/TC 21/
SC 3, Fire detec-
tion and fire
alarm systems,
since 1997 and
its Chair since
2001. He is also
the Convener of
a number of working groups. He has been
a member of the equivalent Australian
standards committee since 1989 and its
Chair since 1995.
Safety
and tall
buildings
We do work fast !
By Mr. Peter Parsons, Chair ISO/TC 21/SC 3, Fire detection
and fire alarm systems (Australia)
ISO is sometimes criticized by industry and users for taking too long
to develop standards. Sometimes time is required for member coun-
tries to become comfortable with technical requirements that may differ
from what currently exists. This is part of the concensus building proc-
ess. ISO/TC 21/SC 3, Fire detection and alarm systems, has recently
shown that using the information technology tools, such as e-mail, can
@
speed up the development of new standards. In my capacity as Chair
of ISO/TC 21/SC 3 and convener of WG 10, we have made extensively
use of e-mail to develop a new standard for carbon monoxide fire detec-
tors. We have working group members from Australia, Japan, China,
Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, USA and Mexico. Most of these
countries are in different time zones, and
e-mail was a most efficient method of
communciation and sharing ide-
as in the development of the
new CO fire detector
standard.
The project
was approved
and a work-
ing group
formed in
September
2002. By
May 2003,
a draft went
out for com-
ment and ballot.
I couldn’t be more pleased with
the outcome. I was expecting to hold a meeting to finalize the draft in
September 2003, but now, the draft had virtually completed its five-
month enquiry period by then! Working group members undertook the
tasks in a dedicated and timely manner. I tried to leave enough time
between rounds to permit the required translations into other languages
and even with that, we produced a draft in only eight months. We had
good discussions and effective sharing of ideas over e-mail and the
whole process only required two telephone calls to finalize some issues
right at the end.
Working electronically can be an effective way to distribute drafts
and obtain comments. If I were to modify the process next time, I would
just say that e-mail is fine, but there is still an issue concerning docu-
ment control. Next time I would use the ISO Livelink site to store drafts
and collate comments. The risk of losing months of work, or not having
that work available should circumstances change is too high. Using the
Livelink server means that the document trail is secure and can be read-
ily picked up by someone else.
ISO Focus January 2004 17
Main Focus

Lifts in
the emergency
evacuation
of buildings
By Mr. Derek Smith, Chair
of ISO/TC 178, Lifts, elevators,
passenger conveyors,
WG 6, Lift installation
(United Kingdom)

F
or many years discussion has
taken place over the possible
advantages of using lifts for the
evacuation of buildings during an
emergency.
The September 11 events in
the USA and the subsequent increased
risk of terrorist attack to buildings
has brought this debate to the fore,
not only in the USA but also in many
other countries. There are lots of sug-
gestions regarding what could be done
with building designs to make them
more secure and what role, if any,
could be played by lifts in the evacu-
ation of buildings.
OTIS

“ Lifts know where the

floors are but do not
know if they are safe.”
ISO technical committee ISO/
TC 178, Lifts, elevators, passenger
conveyors, working group WG 6, Lift
installation, is particularly concerned
with the role of lifts during emergen-
cies. This working group is made up of
representatives from 25 countries. The
membership is currently comprised of
lift experts from around the world and
also includes professional firefighters
from Germany, the United Kingdom
and Australia.
It is clearly not the role of ISO
178/WG 6 to determine that a lift
should be used for evacuation. They
do not have the expertise in this spe-
cialist field, but they are best suited to
determine what a lift could be capable
of doing if the demand exists.
Since ISO technical committee
ISO/TC 92, Fire safety, is concerned
with building issues and subcommittee
SC 4, Fire safety engineering, deals
with building evacuation, we have
established a fruitful liaison with the
intention of exploring in greater depth
the issue of evacuation. It is their pres-
ent belief that lifts could play a signifi-
cant role in the evacuation strategy for
some building designs.
What would a lift need to
do in an emergency ?
The task of determining what
a lift could or would need to do in an
emergency situation may not appear at
first sight to be complex, but if persons
are to use lifts how many lifts are
required ? What size do they need to
be ? How do you keep those waiting
for the arrival of a lift calm ? What do
you do if the situation in the building
changes so lifts are no longer a safe
means of exit ? These and many more
questions must be addressed.
If you spend a few minutes to
think of some of the issues, you quick-
ly realize that the problem is complex.
To further compound the situation,
there are many different standards of
building construction used globally
that offer differing levels of protection
to a building’s structure and the lifts
contained in it.
Faced with these issues, the
ISO 178/WG 6 committee considered
how best to analyse the problems in
a logical, unemotional manner. How
could they best determine what is
possible and what needs to be done in
any particular building design ? How
would they determine who should do

18 ISO Focus January 2004


what ? How will they best tell those
who must decide if lifts can be used,
what the lift could do ?
After considerable debate, it
became clear that any document pro-
duced needed to be a universal tool if
it was to be of use to ISO/TC 92 and
eventually building designers. It would
have to define in some detail the type
of features the lift could be provided
with, and would have to indicate where
special provisions in the building
design would need to be made to allow
the lift to operate in safety.
“ Some 40 key issues
need to be addressed if
lifts are to be considered
for use during building
evacuation.”
It is important to remember
that whilst the risks associated with
using lifts in an evacuation will be
the same everywhere, the solution will
vary greatly. As long as the building
designers could clearly see the risks
to be addressed they would be free to
address these with whatever technique
suited the design best.
Eventually it was decided that
the best way forward was to produce a
chart that would detail all the decisions
that needed to be made if lifts were to
be used in a given emergency.
To give an example, the first
question on the chart would be : what
is the emergency ? Someone must
decide this, and this could be done by
the building management or possibly
by a building management system
that was sensing various aspects of the
buildings environment and structure.
This is not a lift issue, but the building
designer must determine how this deci-
sion will be made.
Further into the chart, lift-relat-
ed decisions appear such as the fol-
lowing. If a lift is travelling and stops
between floors for some reason with
passenger in the lift car, it will need
to be moved to a floor to release them.
This could be done automatically but
what floor should the car be moved to ?
Should it be the nearest floor ? Is the
Safety
and tall
buildings
Safety standards on lifts for firefighters
Firefighter lifts (or elevators) are used by fire service personnel when faced
with the task of firefighting on a floor high above the ground. They are used
to reach the fire quickly and safely, taking with them their equipment, while,
at the same time, protecting the physical safety and lives of the occupants of
the building as well as their own.
An ISO technical report ISO/TR 16765:2003, Comparison of worldwide
safety standards on lifts for firefighers, aims to help standards writers address
the safety requirements of lifts for firefighters.
The technical report provides guidance for writers of standards through a
comparison of national lift (elevator) codes, fire codes and building regula-
tions as they are applied around the world. It is intended to serve as a reference
tool in the development of safety requirements for firefighter lifts (elevators)
in new or revised standards, with a view to gradually merging technical
requirements worldwide.
“ The selected topics covered in ISO/TR 16765 are analyzing the various
firefighting applications across the world related to local regulations and exist-
ing standards,” said Mr. Michael Savage, past-convenor ISO/TC 178/WG 6.
“ The technical report also deals with the fire resistance of lift landing doors to
prevent fire entering the lift shaft which can act as a chimney.”
ISO/TR 16765 provides a comparison between the European Committee
for Standardization (CEN) standard for firefighting lifts (EN 81-72) and the
national codes of Australia, United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, China,
Hong Kong, India, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore
and Taiwan.
In the absence of a commonly accepted International Standard for fire-
fighter lifts, ISO/
TR 16765 will
serve as a ref-
erence tool for
national stand-
ards committees
when review-
ing and revis-
ing individu-
al codes in an
effort to gradual-
ly merge techni-
cal requirements
worldwide.
“ The bene-
fits of this tech-
nical report is
that it forms a OTIS
global basis for harmonizing the various existing national codes, which at
present vary in their detail, but not in their ultimate goals. Therefore, the
code makers in each country should be made fully aware that this compar-
ison exists and they should always refer to it when updating either local
national codes or regional area codes,” further noted Mr. Savage.
ISO/TR 16765 is the work of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 178,
Lifts, escalators, passenger conveyors, working group WG 6, Lift installa-
tion (classes I,II, III and IV).
ISO Focus January 2004 19
Main Focus
nearest floor safe for the passengers in To date, the committee has About the author
the lift ? identified some 40 key issues that will
need to be addressed if lifts are to be Derek Smith
considered for use during building joined Otis in
Equipment and systems evacuation. the UK in 1963
capable of making and after a five-
Each of these is now in the pro-
year apprentice-
decisions cess of being studied to determine the ship became
possible solutions and the effective- a Lift Service
To answer these questions, the building
ness of these. Engineer.
may need to be provided with equip-
ISO/TC 178/WG 6 will con- From this he
ment and systems capable of making
tinue to develop the decision chart progressed into
decisions. Lifts know where the floors
along with possible solutions for risks testing and even-
are but do not know if they are safe. tually became
that are identified. From this it will be
The conditions on a given floor could the Senior Test Engineer for Otis in the
clear if lifts could be used to assist
be monitored by instruments that United Kingdom.
with building evacuation. The results
inform a building management system
will be published in an ISO Technical With the introduction of micro-processor
of its condition. This sounds a good
Report and others will then be able systems, he moved to new technology
solution but does it create new risk for
to use this report to determine if lifts training and became United Kingdom
passengers ? Does it really produce an
could and should be used and under Sales Engineering Manager with respon-
acceptable solution to the problem ?
what conditions. sibility for both New and Modernization
works, then Product Rationalization
“ Each possible OTIS
manager responsible for rationalising the
UK factory traditional products.
solution identified as a
He is currently the Technical Sales
result of the decision chart Support Director for Otis UK with
needs to be checked to special responsibilities for codes and
see if it is acceptable regulations. He is chairman of the Lift
and Escalator Industry Association (LEIA)
and if it creates any technical committee, a member of
new problems.” BSI/MHE / 4, Chairman of CEN / WT 8,
Vandal resistant lifts, UK representative
at CEN / WG I, a member of CEN /
If the building designer can WG 6, Firefighting lifts, CEN/WT 4,
solve the problem of ensuring the Behaviour of lifts in a fire, CEN / WG 7,
conditions on the floor are safe, the controls, ISO / TC 178 / WG 7,
lift engineer can solve the problem Control devices and signals for lifts
of automatically moving the car to and service lifts, and Chair of ISO / TC
release the trapped passengers. 178 / WG 6, Lift installation (classes I,II,
III and IV) and ISO / TC 178 / WG 4,
The committee realized that
Safety standards comparison.
each possible solution identified as a
result of the decision chart needs to be
checked to see if it is acceptable and if
it creates any new problems. Solutions
often do.
The perfect tool for this task is
the ISO 14798, Risk assessment metho-
dology. This gives a logical method for
the analysis of risks and determining
the success of any mitigation used to
lower a risk.
The decision chart combined
with the risk assessment provides the
logical approach required to study the
issues. The process is long and as yet
incomplete, but it is thorough and will
result in an unbiased view of the prob-
lems and possible solutions.
20 ISO Focus January 2004

Fire
and security
By Dr. Brian R. Kirby,
Convenor of ISO/TC 92/SC
2/WG 2, Calculation methods
(United Kingdom)
I
n the modern world, fire and secu-
rity are issues that all too frequently
appear in the news and are invaria-
bly linked to some kind of disaster.
Disasters arise due to one of
two actions :
• An accident.
• A deliberate act – arson or terrorism.
Both causes of such events
often lead to injury or loss of life, and
damage to the infrastructure and com-
mercial activities.
We can never stop accidents
occurring as they are part of human
nature and we are all fallible, nor are
we able to stop deliberate acts of arson
or terrorism while there is uncertainty
in some parts of the world. However,
we can mitigate against such events
in reducing the impact upon people,
buildings, structures and the environ-
ment. This can be achieved through a
greater understanding of the physical
processes that take come into play, and
developing new products, systems and
strategies that improve the resistance
to these events so that they pose a
lesser threat to our everyday lives and
businesses.
Safety
and tall
buildings
For many years, national and
international regulatory authorities
have used the development of stan-
dards to set the performance to which
fire safety and security requirements
must adhere. While they have gener-
ally served us well, as our require-
ments are pushed to new limits, either
in response to deliberate or accidental
events, or, the need to accommodate
“ ISO provides a platform
round where engineers,
scientists, product
manufacturers
and regulators debate
the issues.”
ISO Focus January 2004 21
Main Focus
greater originality in architectural
design, we have to set our sights in
developing new standards and design
codes that provide us with the tools
to evaluate and engineer solutions to
these problems.
“ Full-scale tests are
very expensive, time-
consuming, usually one-off
experiments.”
During the last few years, sig-
nificant advances in the steel industry
have been made in understanding
the behaviour of complete structural
frames in fire, and this has come about
by carrying out full-scale tests on real
buildings so that their true performance
can be evaluated. This has not only
led to economies in design but, more
importantly, it has enabled the critical
elements that play a fundamental role
in controlling structural performance
to be identified, with the result that the
safety measures imposed are exact and
focused to where they are needed.
However, full-scale tests are
very expensive, time consuming, usu-
ally one-off experiments and, if not
carefully designed, may be limited
in their application. Therefore, while
they serve a purpose in demonstrating
to designers in a practical and, usually,
in a very public manner that certain
engineered solutions really do work,
much of the information that is used in
developing analytical models through
numerical analysis is derived from less
dramatic experimental studies. For
this reason, the steel industry places
great importance in the development
of International Standards that can
address areas of uncertainty or where
there is a need to develop specific tests,
to provide the necessary information
that designers require.
ISO/TC 92 subcommittee SC
2, for example, which deals with
fire containment, is at the forefront
of responding to these challenges.
Through the specialist working groups,
new methodologies in design calcula-
tions are being developed for the prac-
tising engineer. It is recognized within
22 ISO Focus January 2004
this subcommittee, there is a need to
provide more exact data at elevated
temperatures on the thermo-physical
response of materials and products
used in building construction. New
or better tests standards have to be
developed in order to provide us with
the information that is representative
of the type of conditions that exist in
practice.
“ The steel industry
places great importance
in the development of
International Standards.”
The Tall Buildings conference,
held during October 2003 in Kuala
Lumpur, provided an opportunity to
listen and understand how designers
are now beginning to address fire and
safety issues in landmark structures.
Central to many of the papers pre-
sented were the events of 9/11. These
posed questions on how we could plan
and improve life safety and property
protection should such a disaster occur
in the future, not necessarily in a build-
ing, as this type of event could easily
occur on a major bridge or within a
roadway or rail tunnel. However, as
yet, we do not have a test that subjects
the fire protection applied to structural
members to impact fatigue in order to
ensure the long-term integrity of the
material to remain intact, and which
will fulfill its function should the need
arise at some point in the future.
Understand first what
are the ‘weakest links’
After such a major disaster as 9/11, it is
an easy knee jerk reaction to call upon
increased levels of safety. However,
these must be tempered by first under-
standing what are the ‘weakest links’
in the design process, and to ensure
that effort and resources are geared to
improving those areas rather than giv-
ing the illusion of improved safety by
just ‘adding more’.
One of the key messages from
the conference was that, while we can
design better and more robust struc-
tures, a greater emphasis has to be made
for escape, search and rescue opera-
tions, and no lesser requirement is the
need for tall robust shafts that are able
to restrict the actions of both impact
and fire. To this end, new structural
solutions comprising steel and concrete
sandwich panels, for example, have
been developed that offer opportuni-
ties to provide improved life safety for
both the occupants and rescue services.
However, it has been necessary to test
such panels in the standard furnace in a
modified arrangement that can generate
the type and magnitude of the forces
typical of those when placed in-situ.
A key issue that ISO committees
need to recognize is whether the current
methods of testing building products
under a standard furnace-heating regime
are adequate to address some of the
concerns that are now being raised. For
many years, we have been testing struc-
tural elements to ISO 834, Fire-resis-
tance tests – Elements of building cons-
truction, in isolation. Yet, an important
aspect to the performance of sub-frames,
or total structures, is the behaviour of
the connections. It has always been
assumed that they will perform accept-
ably in fire, and therefore have gener-
ally been given no further consideration.
While research on steel connections has
been carried out on the types of mate-
rials and components used, i.e. bolts,
welds and short stub-beam/column
crucifix arrangements, we do not have a
test procedure that enables connections
to be tested as part of a sub-frame where
the interaction with a composite floor is
a necessary part of the system.
 Safety
and tall
buildings
These problems and areas
of uncertainty are not unique to one
country and need to be addressed in
the international forum. ISO provides
a platform round which engineers,
scientists, product manufacturers and
even regulators come together to debate
the issues and provide the impetus for
developing new and better standards
or indeed, assist in highlighting areas
where research needs to be directed
either within companies or through
technical institutions.

About the author

Brian Kirby has
been involved
in fire safety
engineering
since 1979 with
primary respon-
sibilities for
research into the
understanding
and the develop-
ment of design
codes and fire
resistant solutions for steel construction.
He represents the Steel Industry on a
number of national and intenational codes
and standards organizations and is cur-
rently convenor of ISO/TC 92/SC 2/WG Setting
2, Calculation methods, which covers the
development of calculation methods for
performance as
fire containment. a standard
He has been responsible for managing
several of the major programmes on full-
scale fire tests in buildings with the tests
carried out on the eight-storey steel
By Mr. Sam Francis, at that time to recognize the growing
ISO/TC 92/SC 4, Fire safety importance of Fire Safety Engineering
framed building at Cardington probably
(FSE) to all aspects of fire safety.1), 2)
being the most well known. engineering, and NFPA 5000,
Historically, fire safety engi-
Brian Kirby is currently manager of Corus
NFPA Fire Test Committee neering has focused on the practice of
Fire Engineering which is a consultancy (USA) designing specific life safety systems
within Corus Group and provides fire and fire resistance methods to accom-

I
engineering services to architects and n 1995, years before the collapse
modate prescriptive building code
engineers into building design as well as of the World Trade Center towers
requirements. In the last decade, there
directing research activities. caused the construction industry to
has been a movement toward what has
review the pertinence of the current
become know as performance-based
fire resistance testing procedures, ISO
building codes. Internationally, the
technical committee ISO/TC 92, Fire
Safety, had already begun a carefully
planned shift from prescriptive testing 1) Prof. Geoff Cox, former Chair, ISO/TC 92,
Fire safety, “ Vision and management ”, p. 11.
to a more engineered (performance
2) Deggary N. Priest, Chairman ISO/TC 92/
based) approach to fire safety. The SC 2, Fire Containment, “ Fire resistance
title and scope of TC 92 was changed standards ”, p. 14.

ISO Focus January 2004 23

Main Focus
fire safety engineering community has
both encouraged and participated in
this activity. In its rudimentary forms,
this has meant designing fire protec-
tion systems, both active and passive,
to some level of performance as decid-
ed in advance by the jurisdictional
authority, the designer and the build-
ing owner. The growing sophistication
of this endeavour has moved it another
step. In North America, there is a
movement to “ decouple ” the concept
of height and area construction limits
from the presumptive code limitations
and to treat them as another variable
in the fire safety engineering equation.
Viewing fire resistive
construction globally
Just as the descriptions and test-
ing of barriers to fire vary internation-
ally, so do the limitations on building
construction as a function of type of
construction, use, and occupancy.
Therefore, just like testing of fire resis-
tive construction is being viewed more
globally, the underlying construction
requirements are more frequently
thought of in a similar fashion. Thus,
the concept of limiting a building’s
size as a function of occupancy clas-
sification and type of construction
(e.g. non-combustible) or, more pre-
scriptively, by specifying a particular
construction material (e.g. concrete) is
being discarded in favour of a rationale
approach to fire safety. As such, it is a
variable in the overall fire safety evalu-
ation of the building.
The history of such building
code limitations in North America is
short. Toward the end of the 19 th cen-
tury, building codes began to appear
in large cities such as New York. The
codes were driven by public health
concerns, and were actually rooted in
3) Ira Woolson, Columbia University, NFPA
Journal 1904.
4) David Collins, FAIA, Height and Area
Limits, a New Approach, NFPA Annual
Conference, Atlanta, GA.
5) Birgit Östman, and Daniel Rydholm. Fire
Resistance of Timber Structures – National
Guidelines in European and Some other
Countries, Tratek Rapport P 0212045,
Stockholm, 2002.
24 ISO Focus January 2004
a more puritanical reaction to tenement
buildings with communal sanitary
facilities. Thus, there was no restric-
tion on the structure or its elements,
but rather on facilities and relation-
ships to other buildings. As these cities
grew in size, limits were thought nec-
essary for both light and ventilation.3)
Eventually, the density of construction
led to the development of fire districts
as a concept to protect against confla-
gration. Part of the concept of a fire
district was a limit on area of a build-
ing in order to limit the fuel load that
building represented. Limiting fuel
“ There is an opportunity
for ISO to create direction
for international regulation
of fire safety. ”
load was intended to limit contribution
to conflagration.
In the middle of the 20 th cen-
tury, many of the concepts of fire
districts were seen to be prescriptive
and based upon arbitrary limits. The
codes developed a set of performance-
oriented requirements (e.g. separation
distance between buildings and fire
resistance rating of exterior walls) as
a better method of regulating types
of construction and building size.
Meanwhile, other countries pursued
different rationale to limit types of
construction in response to various
calamities which befell them.
Two recent events have caused
the fire safety engineering community
to focus on these issues again. First,
the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) has called the limits to height or
area of a building based upon its type
of construction as arbitrary and capri-
cious.4) The position of AIA is that
prescriptive building codes adequately
protect building occupants by features
such as number of exits and travel dis-
tance. Further, neighbouring structures
are protected from conflagration by
limiting distances between buildings.
Second, Tratek, Swedish Institute for
Wood Technology Research, pub-
lished a report in which they observe
“ Fire resistance is also measured and
expressed in a similar way all over the
world 5). An International Standard (ISO
834, Fire-resistance tests – Elements of
building construction) has been used
for a long time.” The report further
observes that there are differences
in regulations and in fire experience
in countries around the world. The
Institute set out to study the limita-
tions imposed by various countries on
wood structures as a function of size.
It is clear that there is much room for
harmonization of requirements. It is
also clear that Fire Safety Engineering
must devote specific attention to the
materials of the structure as well as the
materials of the various components
and barriers within the building.
Standardization of the
engineering approach and
performance evaluation
Given that this is a need, there
is an opportunity for ISO to create
direction for international regulation
of fire safety. The concept of limit-
ing building height or area in order to
improve its fire safety is without basis
or sound scientific rationale. Risk
analysis may demonstrate acceptable
levels of performance with structures
of sizes not previously attempted
under various codes. Likewise, analy-
sis may show that certain combina-
tions of construction and occupancies
are oversized. The risk approach needs
to be quantifiable, so that perform-
ance results in one country may be
reviewed and applied to an analysis in
another country. It is in this area that
an International Standard is desirable.
Standardization of the engineering
approach and performance evaluation
would allow the broadest application

of experience globally and would
facilitate other International Standards
to enable the development of other
building construction concepts.
Each material has specific prop-
erties which limit its use as a construc-
tion material. High strength concrete
has shown a propensity to spall, steel
softens, and wood looses cross section
due to charring, when exposed to fire.
Wood structures have limitations on
the height of the structure, based upon
the inherent physical properties of the
material and its response to various
loads. Structural engineers have accept-
ed this concept and made it part of their
The needs of
the insurance
industry
By Mr. Terry Day, Convenor
ISO/TC 92/SC 2, working
group WG 4, Ventilation ducts
and fire dampers, and Member
of BSI Loss Prevention Council
(United Kingdom)
Safety
and tall
buildings
Clearly, the
financial exposure of a large multi-
storey building or a large industrial
complex requires significant risk ana-
lysis and certainly such buildings that
are only built to minimum standards
do not represent an attractive risk to
insurers.
It is probably true at the present
moment that there are too many differ-
ent technical organizations as well as
individual groups of insurers formulat-
ing their own rules and specifications.
ISO standards offer a potential way of
creating common standards, but this is

design process. Over time, many other
characteristics have been ascribed to
the inherent limits of the materials. For
example, the limit on height of a build-
ing to ensure adequate light and venti-
lation to all occupied levels has become
a fire safety issue for many because
the resulting fire safety performance
was acceptable. Standardization inter-
nationally will contribute to making
performance work.
About the author
Sam Francis
is a Regional
Manager of
the American
Forest and Paper
Association.
He is a CABO
certified build-
ing official, and
has nearly 20
years of experi-
ence as a build-
ing code official. He also served on the
Ohio Construction Industry Certification
Board, and the National Construction
Code Inspector Certification Program
Test Preparation committee. He has
taught extensively on subjects related to
codes and code development throughout
the United States and Canada. He is the
author of numerous articles and publica-
tions on various building regulation
subjects.
A
s the insurance
industry is a
global based
industry, the need for
fire protection pro-
ducts and fire safety
engineering to adopt
common specifica-
tion and procedures
is vital across the
whole world.
The importan-
ce of the protection
of the business, as
well as the substan-
tial loss of life after
the tragedy of 9/11,
has clearly focused
the fire protection
industry on reducing
the risks. The status
of such an event has OMEGA POINT LABORATORIES
changed from highly only achievable if the needs of insur-
improbable to probable. ers are adequately taken into account.
Representatives of insurers need to be
The need for a global encouraged to participate in appropri-
ate ISO groups so that any formulated
strategy
strategy includes their needs.
A global based strategy is More attention needs to be
vital, combining the needs to protect taken in what circumstances a fire
property as well as life. In respect to protection system will fail to perform
fire safety, ISO/TC 92 is well placed adequately its intended function under
to lead. However, the needs of the a number of adverse scenarios. These
insurers must be taken into account. need to be identified and used in fire
This is because they have vitally safety engineering standards currently
important experience of the use and being developed. Clearly, based on
(sometimes) abuse of fire protection the experience of insurers, fire testing
systems and often poor standards of on its own cannot provided sufficient
fire safety management in many com- evidence without further investiga-
mercial and industrial buildings. tions. These will include such factors
as resistance to impact, durability and

ISO Focus January 2004 25

Main Focus
defining more precisely any limitations
on the end use applications. Whilst to
some extent, such factors are already
being considered in some countries,
these often tend to consider normal
events and not abnormal events.
More guidance is needed on
how designers of buildings can design
for abnormal events and this could be
a vital contribution for the appropriate
ISO committees.
Potential targeted
areas for standardized
guidance
It is worth noting that ISO/TC 92 is
already trying to ensure that its broad
range of fire tests generate data that
can be used by the fire engineering
community. It is important that the
protection of the business and property
protection is as much part of the stra-
tegy as is life safety aspects.
Some potential targeted areas
for standardized guidance could be :
• Provide guidance on preventing
collapse of tall buildings by ensu-
ring adequate facilities for load
transfer and sufficient built-in
redundancy.
• Consider effects of structural fire
protection systems when exposed
to impact loading and rapid tem-
perature rises and higher tempera-
tures than provided for in standard
furnace testing. The effect of the
cooling down phase of a fire could
also usefully be covered.
• Investigate the best ways of con-
taining fire and smoke to one area
for the full duration of a fire.
• Provide suitable information to
designers on how to minimize the
risk of a serious fire causing subs-
tantial damage to the business.
• Look at the best ways of reducing
the damage to the building fabric
and contents of smoke and its
potential corrosive damage to cri-
tical electronic equipment.
• Prepare guidance on dealing with
specific processes used in industry
26 ISO Focus January 2004
to ensure adequate guidance if
available across the world.
• Prepare a definitive guidance on
fire safety management so that the
risk of a fire starting in the first
place in commercial and industrial
premises can be minimized. Such a
standard could be specified directly
by insurers as a pre-condition of
providing cover.
Although there is clearly a need
to look critically at current testing pro-
cedures and regulatory requirements,
the potential importance of fire safety
engineering concepts to property and
business protection cannot be over-
emphasized. These techniques, whilst
still needing considerable development
in some areas, provide the best oppor-
tunity to look at the risk in a specific
building and to make the most appro-
priate choice to minimize the overall
risk. This is not really possible when
adopting a more prescriptive approach
that does not consider the nature and
risk in a specific building.
ISO has a vital role to play in
extending the data on product perfor-
mance and information from actual
fires to reduce the significant financial
losses caused by large fires.
The views given in this article
are my own and do not necessarily
represent the views of individual insu-
rance companies.
About the author
Terry Day is
a Chartered
Builder and an
incorporated
engineer in the
United Kingdom.
He originally
trained as a
mechanical engi-
neer and has
been involved in
fire protection for over 30 years.
He joined the staff of the Fire Research
Station in 1968 and after six years joined
the Agrément Board where he worked
for three years. In 1976 he commenced
work with the Fire Insurers Research
and Testing Organisation which in 1985
became part of the Loss Prevention
Council.
His main area of expertise is in the field
of passive fire protection and its interface
with other methods of fire protection,
particularly automatic sprinklers and
smoke extraction. His work has included
testing of building products and construc-
tions, research, product certification,
consultancy, preparation of standards and
production of Codes.
He is Associate Director at FRS, the fire
division of BRE, and acts as a consultant
to insurers for the further development
of the LPC Design Guide for the Fire
Protection of Buildings.
He is convenor of BSI and CEN commit-
tees as well as ISO/TC 92/SC2/WG 4.
 Safety
and tall
buildings
Fire development high as 1 100 º C
The World The aircraft that struck the twin
(2 000 º F) in some areas, and 800 º C
(1 500 º F ) in others. Air to support
Trade Center towers each carried about 37 850 liters
of fuel at the time of impact. As no
the fire was supplied mainly through
collapse and its flame was evident immediately upon
openings torn in the building by air-
craft impact and fireballs.
implications for impact, the fuel likely was distrib-
uted in a flammable cloud throughout
International the impact area. Its ignition caused
a rapid rise in pressure, then the
“ The fire that weakened
structural members
Standards expulsion of fireballs into shafts and
and connections
through openings.
eventually brought down
By Dr. W. Gene Corley, Senior the towers.”
KEYSTONE/AP Photo/Aurora/Robert Clark

Vice President of Construction

Technology Laboratories, Inc., Structural response
Skokie, Ill. (USA), and leader to fire loading
of the FEMA and SEI/ASCE Aircraft impact degraded the
Building Performance Study strength of the structure and its abil-
Team for the World Trade ity to withstand additional loading.
Center, Chair of ISO/TC 71, Although the specific steps are uncer-
Concrete. tain, the following fire effects likely
contributed :

F
ollowing the September 11, • Impact force, fireballs, and debris
2001, attacks on New York compromised spray-applied fire
City’s World Trade Center (WTC), protection on structural members.
a team of civil, structural, and fire
protection engineers was deployed to • Loads transferred from damaged
study the performance of buildings at structural elements put columns
the site. This article, drawn from the under elevated stresses.
team’s preliminary report1), presents • Debris that fell through partially
some of the study’s findings and collapsed floor areas increased
the implications these may have for loads on floor framing.
International Standards development.
• Fire-heated floor framing and
slabs expanded, developing addi-
World Trade Center tional stresses. Resulting stress
Towers that exceeded the capacity of some
members or connections could
(WTC 1 and WTC 2) These fireballs did not explode have initiated a series of failures.
The structural design of the or generate a shock wave, and thus
did not in themselves cause structural • Increased temperatures may have
two main towers consisted of closely
damage. Calculations show they did, caused floor slabs and support
spaced 1 016 mm exterior columns
however, burn 3 785 to 11 360 liters framing to lose rigidity and sag.
connected to each other with deep
of jet fuel quickly. The remaining This could have caused end con-
spandrel plates. The columns and
fuel appears to have burned off within nections to fail and allow supported
spandrel plates were prefabricated
minutes, generating enough heat to floors to collapse onto the floors
into panels that together formed a
ignite virtually all the combustible below.
load-bearing tube, stiff both laterally
and vertically. Interior cores, formed materials on the impacted floors and
by larger, more widely spaced steel within the planes.
columns, housed elevator shafts and Computer modelling suggests
stairwells. Floor slabs were light- that the fire energy output for each 1) Corley, W.G., et al., “ World Trade
weight concrete over steel decking, tower peaked at 3-5 trillion BTU/hr Center Building Performance Study : Data
(1-1.5 gigawatts) – similar to the Collection, Preliminary Observations, and
supported by a robust and redundant Recommendations,” Federal Emergency
system of trusses. power output of a commercial gener- Management Agency Mitigation Directorate,
ating station. Temperatures reached as FEMA 403, Washington, D.C., May 2002.

ISO Focus January 2004 27

Main Focus
• Increased temperature of column
steel would reduce the columns’
yield strength, modulus of elastic-
ity and critical buckling strength,
potentially initiating buckling. This
most likely affected the failure of
the interior core columns.
Progression of collapse
Once the collapse began, poten-
tial energy stored in the upper part of
the structure during construction was
rapidly converted into kinetic energy.
Collapsing floors above acceler-
ated and impacted on the floors below,
causing an immediate, progressive
series of floor failures, each punch-
ing in turn onto the floor below. The
process of collapse was essentially the
same for both towers 1 and 2.
WTC 7, a 47-story office build-
ing that was part of the WTC complex,
collapsed at 17:20 on September 11,
2001, causing no known casualties.
The performance of WTC 7 is sig-
nificant, because the collapse appears
to be due primarily to fire, rather than
any impact damage from the collaps-
ing towers. Before this event, the
fire-induced collapse of large, fire-
protected steel buildings was virtually
unknown.
Little is known about the igni-
tion and development of the fires, but
they are presumed to have started from
burning debris. Smoke appeared at
several locations in the building soon
after WTC 1 collapsed.
Probable collapse
sequence
The collapse began on the east
side of WTC 7 on the interior, as the
east penthouse disappeared into the
building. Next, the west penthouse
disappeared, and a fault or “ kink ”
developed on the east half of WTC
7. The collapse then began at the
lower floor levels, and the building
completely collapsed to the ground.
Collapse appears to have begun inside
at the lower levels and progressed up,
as the fault extended from the lower
levels to the top.
28 ISO Focus January 2004
The findings : more
from fire than from
impact effects
• The towers survived the impact of
the aircraft.
• The fire that weakened structural
members and connections eventu-
ally brought down the towers.
• The redundancy and robustness of
the structural system helped keep
the towers standing.
• Transfer trusses like those in WTC
7 need special consideration.
• The fire resistance of connections
is important and needs further
study to predict their behaviour
under overload conditions.
• Relate fire-protection measures to
potential fire loads.
• Consider potential impact in the
placement and design of exit stair-
ways.
Expansion of floor slabs and framing
results in outward deflection of columns
and potential overload.
WTC and International
Standards
The knowledge that the col-
lapse of WTC buildings resulted more
from fire than from impact effects
on structural members points up the
importance of examining and improv-
ing fire safety standards. Standards
that apply to construction materials, to
structural components, and to design
features such as exit stairways need
to be reevaluated. They also should
be international in scope. The World
Trade Center was advanced for its
time, in that most of its structural steel
was manufactured in Japan, then fab-
ricated into structural members in the
USA. All work was done to very high
standards.
Today, almost 40 years later,
global distribution of construction
materials is common. Building own-
ers and occupants throughout the
world need assurance that materials
conform to high standards of quality
and safety, regardless of where they
are produced.
About the author
W. Gene Corley,
Chair of ISO/TC
71, Concrete, is
currently Senior
Vice President,
Construction
Technology Lab-
oratories, Inc.,
Stokie, Illinois.
Dr. Corley is an
active member
of the National
Academy of Engineering, an Honorary
member of ASCE, and member of sev-
eral other engineering societies. He is
past President of the National Council of
Structural Engineers Associations and past
Chairman of the ASCE Council on Foren-
sic Engineering. Dr. Corley was Principal
investigator for the ASCE and FEMA on
the investigation of the Oklahoma City
Bombing and has done investigations of
earthquake damage in several parts of the
world. Currently, Dr. Corley is heading the
ASCE Building Performance Study Team
for the investigation of the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon.

For building
as solid
as a rock
T
he safety of buildings as well as
other infrastructures such as large
dams, tunnels, bridges, roads,
excavations, embankments and slopes
relies on the accurate description of
rock found above and below the con-
struction.
ISO is helping to ensure the
safety of these infrastructures and their
users by developing an International
Standard that will help engineers accu-
rately identify rock mass and material
as well as the potential engineering
problems they pose.
ISO 14689-1:2003, Geotechnical
investigation and testing – Identifica-
tion and classification of rock – Part 1:
Identification and description, brings
together in one glossary-type docu-
ment the physical and chemical prop-
erties of rock material designed for use
The example of what not
to do. When the Tower
of Pisa was started in
1173, it was to be at a
height of 55,863 meters
the tallest building in
Italy, even in Europe.
The tower was built
on ground consisting
of clay, fine sand, and
shells, and soon after its
beginnings, the tower’s
lean was perceptible. In
2001, specialists found
the solution to slowly
remove soil from the
north side of the tower’s
foundation so that it
would right itself. As the
sandy soil is removed,
the ground compresses
and the clay firms,
giving a stronger
foundation.
Safety
and tall
buildings
by engineers with
limited geological knowledge.
Based on international practice,
the standard identifies and describes
rock material and mass on the basis
of mineralogical composition, genetic
aspects, structure, grain size, discon-
tinuities and other parameters. It also
provides rules for the description of
various other characteristics as well as
for their designation.
“ The correct identification and
description of rock is an essential part
of the geotechnical investigation,” says
Dr. Volker Eitner, Secretary of the
subcommittee that developed the new
standard. “ The correct identification
and description of the physical and
chemical properties of rock are the
fundamental basis for the design of
buildings. If the rock was not identi-
fied and described correctly, the safety
of these buildings and structures may
be endangered and therefore the lives
of many people as well.”
In addition to its use by engi-
neers, ISO 14689-1 will be of value
to consultant geologists, construction
companies, ground investigation enter-
prises as well as testing and building
authorities.
The development of part 2 of
ISO 14689 is underway which will
cover requirements for the electronic
exchange of data on identification
and description of rock. The techni-
cal specification, ISO/TS 14689-2,
Geotechnical investigation and test-
ing – Part 2 : Electronic exchange of
data on identification and description
of rock, will provide a data exchange
format (XML) that facilitates the data
exchange independently of the hard-
ware or software system used.
The standard is the work of
ISO technical committee ISO/TC
182, Geotechnics, subcommittee SC
1, Geotechnical investigation and
testing.
ISO Focus January 2004 29
Developments and Initiatives
Securing e-business
By Mr. Ted Humphreys 1), Dr.
Marijke De Soete 2) and Prof.
Chris Mitchell 3)
T
here are many risks that may
happen in an e-business world,
including fraudulent transactions,
user accounting and validation errors,
and deliberate or accidental mistakes
in identifying citizens, customers and
business partners. These and other
risks can have a significant financial
impact on citizens using the Internet
for on-line shopping, and on busi-
nesses exchanging legally binding
documents or making payments and
transactions electronically.
We previously wrote about
some of the security issues arising
in the conduct of e-business, and
the technologies that exist to address
these issues. That article 4) discussed
a management framework for esta-
blishing trust for e-business. This cur-
rent article takes this a stage further by
looking at some of the security stan-
dards being implemented in various
e-business technologies to help ensure
business confidence in the e-business
world. These standards are designed
to help counter the risks mentioned
above and thereby engender long-term
success and trust in e-business.
Enter the world of
cryptographic techniques
Cryptographic methods and
techniques can be used in a range of
different ways, such as protecting the
integrity and guaranteeing the origin of
an electronic document, preventing the
originator of an electronic document
from repudiating it (non-repudiation),
or verifying the identity of a com-
municating party. These are all key
issues in e-business, and it is vitally
important for all parties involved in
e-business to have trusted and intero-
perable techniques that can secure and
protect e-business services. Therefore
having access to standardized security
30 ISO Focus January 2004
techniques should be of considerable
significance to businesses worldwide.
In recent years, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27,
IT Security techniques, have developed
standards which cover a wide range of
cryptographic techniques designed
specifically to address e-business con-
cerns, and this article focuses on two
fundamental security mechanisms,
namely authentication and digital
signatures.
Authenticating users
and devices
Entity authentication mecha-
nisms are fundamental to the estab-
lishment of secure communications
between two parties; for example the
industry protocols SSL/TLS, used by
many Web browser applications, are
based on an entity authentication mech-
anism. Also, NIST (National Institute
of Standards and Technology), which
produces standards for US Government
use, has recently produced a Federal
Information Processing Standard
(FIPS Pub 195) based on ISO/IEC
9798-3, containing two entity authen-
tication mechanisms based on the use
of digital signatures.
“ New standards provide
vital building blocks
for signing e-business
transactions.”
ISO/IEC 9798, Entity authen-
tication, is a five-part standard that
specifies mechanisms that can be used
to corroborate that an entity is the one
that is claimed. An entity to be authen-
ticated proves its identity by demons-
trating its knowledge of a secret. The
mechanisms involve exchanges of
information between entities (e.g.,
users, computers or communications
devices) and, where required, exchan-
ges with a trusted third party. The indi-
vidual messages exchanged between
parties are protected using crypto-
graphic techniques, but successful
authentication also requires proof of
the timeliness of messages, to prevent
a malicious party simply replaying
old messages to impersonate a user.
Thus the messages also incorporate
techniques for establishing message
freshness, e.g., timestamps or random
challenges and responses.
Part 1 of ISO/IEC 9798 provi-
des a general model for entity authen-
tication and Parts 2-5 of this standard
specify mechanisms based on different
types of cryptographic techniques,
including digital signatures, encryp-
tion and Message Authentication
Codes (MACs). Separate standards
exist for each of these types of techni-
ques, and the standards for signatures,
of particular relevance to e-business,
are discussed later in this article.
Digitally signed
information
A digital signature in the elec-
tronic world (e.g., in an exchange of
payment information) provides the
same kind of characteristics that are
expected from a handwritten signa-
ture in the paper-based world. It is
applicable to providing authentication
of the signer, integrity of the informa-
tion being signed and non-repudiation
of the transaction. Digital signatures
are being used for the protection of
patient records in healthcare systems,
for electronic payments, exchange of
information via Web browser, filing tax
records and other legal documents, on-
line shopping and card transactions.
Digital signature capabilities
are being embedded in mobile pho-
nes, mobile computing devices, smart
cards and other IC cards, Web brow-
sers and many other technologies and
applications. Therefore several digital
signature schemes have been develo-
ped and standardized to offer a range
of implementation options to take
account of application and technology
variants and constraints: length/size
of message/document to be signed,
storage and transmission limitations/
capacity, speed of signing and verifi-
cation, and performance.
@
ISO/IEC 9796, Digital signa-
ture schemes giving message recovery,
is a three-part standard, which specifies
digital signature mechanisms giving
partial or total message recovery,
aiming at reducing storage and trans-
mission overhead. The second part of
this standard (covering schemes based
on the difficulty of the integer factori-
zation problem) specifies three digital
signature techniques for messages of
any length. The third part (covering
schemes based on the difficulty of
the discrete logarithm problem) speci-
fies a further two signature methods.
Schemes from this standard are spe-
cifically designed to minimize the
data overhead of using signatures, and
hence are designed for application in
constrained environments, where stora-
ge space and/or communications band-
width may be very limited. Examples
of application domains include smart
cards and personal mobile devices.
ISO/IEC 14888, Digital signa-
tures with appendix, is a three-part
standard: a general model which pro-
vides a description of the signature
and verification processes of a digital
signature with appendix, and two
further parts each based on a specific
type of digital signature mechanisms
with respect to the distribution of veri-
fication keys. In Part 2 : Identity-based
signature mechanisms, the verification
key is a public function of the signer’s
identity, while in Part 3 : Certificate-
based signature mechanisms the veri-
fication key cannot be computed from
the signer’s identity but the verifier
obtains it by some other means, e.g.,
by retrieving it from a certificate. In
summary ISO/IEC 14888 offers a com-
plete range of signature mechanisms
designed for general application.
At this point it is also impor-
tant to mention hash-functions, i.e.
functions mapping messages to short
fixed-length blocks of bits called
hash-codes.These functions are a vital
component in almost every practical
digital signature scheme, including all
those standardized in ISO/IEC 9796,
Digital signature schemes giving mes-
sage recovery, and ISO/IEC 14888,
and therefore developers of applica-
tions and software must also choose
a hash-function for the signature
scheme they are implementing. ISO/
IEC 10118, Hash-functions, is a four-
part standard specifying cryptographic
hash-functions designed to efficiently
compute short hash-codes, e.g. of 20
bytes, as a function of arbitrary length
messages. These hash-functions have
the one-way property, i.e. given a pos-
sible short hash-code it is computatio-
nally infeasible to find a message that,
when input to the hash-function, gives
this hash-code as output. ISO/IEC
10118 provides a wide range of hash-
functions, using a variety of different
computational techniques.
Application-specific
standards
The generic signature tech-
niques defined in ISO/IEC 9796
and ISO/IEC 14888 are of impor-
tance in a broad range of application
domains, and it is intended that these
standardized techniques are used as
building blocks in the development
of application-specific standards. For
example, the ISO/TC 68, Banking,
securities and other financial servi-
ces, defines security standards for the
financial industry, which are based
on the generic security standards,
1) Mr. Ted Humphreys
is Convenor of ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC 27/WG 1,
Requirements, security
services and guidelines.
2) Dr. Marijke De Soete (MasterCard Int.)
is Convenor of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27/WG 2,
Security techniques and mechanisms.
3) Prof. Chris Mitchell (Royal Holloway,
University of London) is editor of ISO/IEC
FCD 18033-1, Information technology
– Security techniques– Encryption algorithms
– Part 1: General and ISO/IEC 9798-6,
Information technology -- Security techniques
-- Entity authentication -- Part 6: Mechanisms
based on manual data transfer.
4) Mr. Ted Humphreys, ‘Trust in E-biz’. ISO
Bulletin, January 2003
5) A joint specification, orginally developed
by Europay, MasterCard and Visa, and now
administered by EMVCo, LLC, which ensures
global interoperability for smart card payments
by defining all interactions that take place
between a smart card and a chip terminal.
These specifications are available from the
EMVCo website www.emvco.com
ISO Focus January 2004 31
Developments and Initiatives
mentioned above. Also ISO/IEC JTC
1/SC 17 refers to these standards for
application in smart cards (e.g., within
ISO/IEC 7816, Identification cards
–Integrated circuit(s) cards with con-
tacts – Part 5 : Numbering system and
registration procedure for application
identifier). The financial industry stan-
dard for chip card-based debit/credit
transactions (known as the EMV spe-
cifications 5) uses a digital signature
technique taken from ISO/IEC 9796-
2 (a scheme optimized to minimize
storage requirements in the card and
bandwidth in the transmissions) and
a hash-function from ISO/IEC 10118-
3, Information technology – Security
techniques – Hash-functions – Part 3:
Dedicated hash-functions.
Increasing needs
for protection
As more business is now being
carried out electronically, the need to
protect the information a company
processes electronically continues to
increase. The standards mentioned
above provide some of the vital build-
ing blocks for signing e-business
transactions. The ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC
27 current development programme is
set to shape an even better future for
protecting e-business worldwide. This
includes some newer techniques that
can be used for authentication/digital
signatures. A multipart standard, ISO/
IEC 15964, Cryptographic techniques
based on elliptic curves, provides fur-
ther digital signature schemes in parts
2 and 4. Their different performance
characteristics make them of particular
interest in specific environments using,
for instance, contactless technology.
Work has also started on the stand-
ardization of security requirements
for “ cryptographic engines ” and,
indeed, a new standard on Security
requirements for security modules is
underway and will be based on FIPS
(Federal Information Processing
Standard) 140-2.
32 ISO Focus January 2004
Paying for standards has
By Mr. Keith Moyes,
International Commercial
Policy Manager, BSI (United
Kingdom)
S
tandards are crucial. They sup-
port legislation, promote trade,
create common understanding,
reduce costs, accelerate product deve-
lopment, save money and can even
save lives. With so much at stake,
we should do everything we can to
promote their widest use. Paying for
standards restricts their use. Standards
should be free !
That is an argument the ISO
community has been hearing for
years : from governments, academics,
companies that have invested heavily
in standards development and from
many standards users. It has real merit,
but I want to argue for retaining the
current system in which standards
work is largely funded through sales
of standards.
We should avoid false alter-
natives. There are no free
standards, just as there
are no free laws
or regula-
tions. Someone,
somewhere, is pay-
ing for these documents to
be written and disseminated. It
might be a small group of companies
paying large fees to be members of a
consortium, or the taxpayer paying for
a parliament and its supporting admin-
istration. It is just a question of who is
paying and how. In the ISO communi-
ty, it is the purchasers of standards who
pay, but we can all envisage alternative
models that would allow standards to
be freely accessible. These are not just
theoretical; there are successful prec-
edents in existence right now, so why
doesn’t ISO follow them ?
Partly, it is a question of history.
ISO has developed according to a dif-
ferent business model and it would be
difficult to change now, but that is not a
compelling reason for maintaining the
status quo. Many necessary changes
are difficult, but that is no reason to
avoid making them. However, I believe
that the ISO model has evolved and
persisted because it has real advan-
tages that are often overlooked.
“ International Standards
have a unique status
because they embody
core ISO values.”
There are many standards that
are widely used, but International
Standards have a unique status because
they embody certain core ISO values.
They are consensual, open, transpar-
ent, balanced and voluntary. The fund-
ing system that has evolved is the one
that is most consistent with the preser-
vation of these values.

real merits
Twelve angry men ?
Consensus is difficult to explain and
even more difficult to achieve. It is
what a jury does in a trial. A jury is
instructed to bring in a unanimous
verdict. If they fail, the judge might
accept a ten-to-two majority or order a
re-trial. It is sometimes hard for juries
to reach a consensus, but there are only
12 people involved, so agreement can
usually be achieved fairly quickly. It
is tempting to ask: “Why not make
standards that way? Put 12 experts in
a room and tell them not to come out
until they have reached agreement.
That wouldn’t take three years and it
would be a lot cheaper.” You would
have a consensus, but it would only
be the consensus of 12 people, not an
International Standard. What would be
missing are the values of openness,
transparency and balance.
Openness and transparency
require that all concerned countries can
participate in the development process
and all the different interests can input
and comment, with the assurance that
their comments will be properly con-
sidered. Balance means reconciling
the needs and priorities of different
countries, large and small companies,
legislators, academics, users, consum-
ers and the general public. Experts on a
standards committee are just the tip of
the iceberg. Behind them is a network
of national mirror committees
each of whose members
are in liaison
“ Passing on
the development costs
– Who is to pay ? ”
with the various interest groups that
they represent. This worldwide net-
work has to be supported by an infra-
structure, both centrally in ISO and at
the national level by the ISO members.
That infrastructure is relatively expen-
sive to maintain.
In principle, there are two
approaches to funding it. You could
pay for the work to be done and make
the standards free, or you can pay for
the standards and make participation
free. In practice, these are to some
extent complementary, but paying for
standards is the main source of revenue
for most standards bodies and is a key-
stone of the ISO system as a whole.
Preserving the value
of openness,
transparency and balance
There are several ways that
the work can be directly funded. The
most common is through government
grants, either as a general support to
the standards body or by contracts to
fund specific areas of work. This is
still important in many countries, but
the worldwide trend is to reduce this
sort of funding. That is no bad thing,
because it helps preserve the independ-
ence of standards making and the mar-
ket responsiveness of ISO.
Some standards bodies have
a membership system that provides
some “ seed corn ” finance, but these
schemes are generally linked to spe-
cific commercial benefits for the mem-
bers and are primarily intended to help
standards bodies maintain links with
their customers. They rarely make a
substantial net contribution to stand-
ards development.
“ If a standard brings
about real benefit the cost
will be insignificant.”
Another possibility would be
private or commercial sponsorship,
but if this happened on any substantial
scale it would be reasonable for the
sponsors to expect real influence on
the work programme, the priorities
and policies of the bodies they were
funding and perhaps on the content
of the standards in which they were
particularly interested. This influence
would compromise the ISO values
that are the defining characteristics of
International Standards.
The most obvious alternative
to sponsorship would be to charge a
fee to sit on a committee. This fee
would cover direct costs and make
a contribution to overheads. This
approach is legitimate for certain
types of standards, and this pos-
sibility is recognized in the
ISO Workshop process, but
if used generally it would
inevitably discourage
participation from
experts that do
not have
the support of
large organizations
behind them, to the det-
riment of formal standards
making. Alternative funding could
be found for these sorts of representa-
tives, or there could be rules under
which participation fees were waived,
but the billing could get complex and
ISO Focus January 2004 33
Developments and Initiatives
the system easily become daunting for
many people whose contribution is
necessary to the integrity of the ISO
process.
By default, we are left with
the second approach : paying for the
standards rather than the process.
Fortunately, it has real merits. Firstly,
it removes the financial barrier to par-
ticipation and this is especially impor-
tant for small companies, academia,
consumers and other representatives
of the interests of society at large. In
many countries, the national standards
body actually provides financial assist-
ance, training and support to enable the
effective participation of these sorts of
representatives and this is paid for out
of their sales revenue.
The many beneficiaries
of good and timely
standards
It has benefits for larger organi-
zations as well. Inevitably, they pro-
vide many of the experts and take on
the greatest share of the work and this
represents a significant cost to them.
They do not make this investment
out of charity : they are also the main
beneficiaries of standardization and it
is vital to them that the right standards
are developed and their experience and
expertise is called upon. But although
they may be the main beneficiaries,
they are by no means the only ben-
eficiaries. All standards users benefit,
whether or not they were involved in
the drafting, and so do their customers
and society at large. With the benefit
being spread this widely, it is appropri-
ate that the infrastructure costs are also
widely spread. Funding standards bod-
ies through sales of standards achieves
this. Ultimately, these costs are borne
by anyone that wishes to benefit from
standards by actually using them.
This funding model also
allows a better balance in the whole
ISO work programme. The impor-
tance of a standard is not directly
linked to the amount of funding it can
attract. Many standards are of vital
importance to a small group of users,
or perhaps to a minority of countries
34 ISO Focus January 2004
that are not in a position to take on the
full costs of developing the standards
that would most immediately ben-
efit their economies. In any funding
model based on direct funding of
the work there would be a tendency
“ Standards will be used
because they are
useful, not because
they are free.”
for these interests to be under-repre-
sented and the overall balance of the
ISO programme to be skewed towards
those areas where funding was easi-
est to obtain. Funding through sales
of standards involves considerable
cross-subsidy, with best sellers help-
ing to pay for other less remunera-
tive but equally important standards.
It divorces priority from funding
and allows ISO to maintain a work
programme that serves a very wide
constituency of industry sectors and
national and regional interests.
Freedom of choice
Finally, standards are voluntary.
If you want to use them, you pay. If
you don’t want to use them then you
don’t pay. Laws and regulations are
mandatory and so is paying for them.
With International Standards it is up
to you. Of course, standards are not
cheap, because of the highly inclusive
nature of the process by which they are
agreed. But the value of a standard is
not the number of pages or words its
contains, it is the benefit it brings. It is
the value of the contract it helps you
secure, the export market it opens up
to your products, the costs it saves, or
the reduction in your risk and liability
it brings about.
I do not believe that paying
for standards restricts their use. If a
standard brings about real benefit the
cost will be insignificant. If it doesn’t,
then it probably should have been writ-
ten differently in the first place. And
that is probably the greatest benefit
of the current ISO business model. It
acts as a litmus test for the standards
themselves. You know you have got a
standard right when people with abso-
lute freedom of choice are willing to
pay good money for it.
That is the merit of the ISO
system.
About the author
Keith Moyes has
had 28 years of
experience in the
standards world.
After studying
Economics and
Economic
History, Keith
Moyes worked as
a librarian before
joining the sales
department of
BSI and subsequently the membership
department, working mainly in member-
ship promotion to become Manager of the
Membership Department. He later took
over BSI’s Information Department
(which included the Library and a large
part of customer services). As Marketing
Manager he had responsibility for BSI’s
pricing and licensing policy. He then took
up his current position of Manager of
Commercial Policy, representing BSI in
all the commercial policy areas in CEN/
CENELEC and ISO/IEC, working closely
with these bodies in the elaboration of
their own commercial policies.
He has made numerous presentations on
various aspects of ISO activities and
policies, most recently on the issues
of free standards and on the importance
of asserting and protecting ISO copyright.
New this month
How consumers
can get involved in
standards-making
A
new brochure that gives advice
to consumers on how they can
get involved in standards-mak-
ing – whether nationally, regionally or
internationally – aims to raise aware-
ness of the benefits of standards and
the need to participate in their devel-
opment.
Standards are an integral ele-
ment of consumer protection. They
contribute to making life simpler and
to increasing the reliability, safety
and effectiveness of the goods and
services we use. From instructions for
video recorders to safety requirements
for cookers, standardization allows
consumers to have confidence in the
quality of the products and services
they purchase.
The brochure, Your voice mat-
ters – Why consumers need to partici-
pate in standards-making…and how
to get involved, will serve to educate
and encourage consumer participation
in the standardization process as well
as to increase their awareness of the
value of voluntary standards. It out-
lines the basic principles and benefits
of consumer participation, including
how standards themselves benefit
from consumers’ input. The brochure
was developed by ISO’s Committee on
consumer policy (COPOLCO).
“ The potential benefits of con-
sumers’ input into standards develop-
ment are not always understood, and
in fact are often underestimated,” said
Dana Kissinger-Matray, Secretary of
COPOLCO, ISO Central Secretariat.
“ This brochure is designed to fill a
gap left by existing publications for
basic introductory material on what
standardization is, what advantages it
has, and how to get involved – seen
from the consumer’s viewpoint.”
The brochure provides exam-
ples of standards where consumers
have made a difference and the per-
sonal experiences of several consumer
representatives. Relevant Web sites
together with educational and infor-
mation resources for consumer repre-
sentatives are also referenced.
The full text of the document is
freely available on our Web site –
www.iso.org (see http://www.iso.org/
iso/en/prods-services/otherpubs/
Consumerquestions.html). The paper
version of the brochure can be ordered
free (for small quantities – postage and
handling are charged on larger orders)
from the ISO Central Secretariat
(sales@iso.org).
ISO standard
for the tourism
industry
T
he first ISO International Standard
directly relating to tourist services
will go much of the way to solving
the problem of ambiguity, confusion
and misunderstanding of terms used in
the tourist industry by providing a refer-
ence basis for the industry.
ISO 18513:2003, Tourism ser-
vices – Hotels and other types of tour-
ism accommodation – Terminology,
is a dictionary of core terms for the
tourist industry, meaning that when
one person uses a term, the others
anywhere in the world know exactly
what is being descibed and what they
can expect.
ISO 18513 can serve as a ref-
erence for the explanations given in
travel brochures or in automatic book-
ing systems ; in business-to-business
communications ; in definitions given
in tourist statistics ; for consumer
advisory services, to avoid misunder-
standings when tourist offers are pro-
vided ; and for interpretation in legal
conflicts.
Protective
equipment for ice
hockey players
I
ce hockey players, goalkeepers and
referees risk head and face injuries
every time they step onto the ice.
ISO 10256:2003, Head and
face protection for use in ice hockey, is
expected to reduce the frequency and
severity of injuries to the head and face
without comprising the form or appeal
of the game.
The new standard, which has
received support from the International
Ice Hockey Federation, specifies per-
formance requirements and test meth-
ods for helmet and face protectors. It
ISO Focus January 2004 35
New this month
is intended help manufacturers design
equipment capable of protecting play-
ers, goalkeepers and referees by dis-
tributing and dampening the force of
impact and preventing the penetration
of objects.
“ The benefits of the new
standard will be twofold,” says Kevin
MacKenzie, Secretary of the subcom-
mittee that developed the new standard.
“ First, the manufacturers and users will
no longer have to deal with several dif-
ferent standards, all of which sought
to do the same thing. Second, this
standard, developed by an international
panel of experts, ‘ sets the bar ’ since it
is based on new investigations, ideas
and theories for further improving head
and face protection for ice hockey.”
According to the CSA (Cana-
dian Standards Association), sports
of all kinds carry a risk of serious eye
injury or blindness, but with proper
protection, virtually all sports eye inju-
ries are preventable. For example, in
the 1974-1975 season – before minor
ice hockey players were required to
wear facemasks – there were 258 eye
injuries, including 43 blinded eyes,
whereas in the 2001-2002 season, only
4 eye injuries, including 2 blinded eyes
were reported.
ISO 10256 provides perform-
ance characteristics for the construc-
tion, shock absorption, puck-impact
resistance, penetration, retention-sys-
tem properties, field of vision, mark-
ing and information of head and face
protectors.
ISO 10256:2003, which replaces
ISO 10256:1996 and ISO 10257:1996
and the European standard EN 967:
1997, Head protectors for ice hockey
players, represents ice hockey’s best
practice for head and face protectors.
The new standard is aimed
for use by manufacturers, conform-
ity assessment agencies, users and ice
hockey associations – both national
and international.
The new standard is the work of
ISO technical committee ISO/TC 83,
Sports and recreational equipment,
subcommittee SC 5, Ice hockey equip-
ment and facilities.
36 ISO Focus January 2004
Publicizing your
ISO 9001:2000
and ISO 14001
certifications
I
SO has issued strict new guidelines
to assist organizations in publici-
zing certifications to the ISO 9001:
2000 quality management system and
ISO 14001 environmental management
system standards.
The guidelines, Publicizing
your ISO 9001:2000 or ISO 14001
certification, are intended to help
organizations apply good practice
when publicizing, communicating and
promoting their certifications to stake-
holders including staff, customers and
business partners, and to the general
public.
The release of the guidelines
was timed to coincide with the 15
December 2003 deadline marking the
end of the three-year period given for
organizations to make the transition
from certificates of conformity to the
1994 versions of ISO 9001, ISO 9002
and ISO 9003 to the single standard
that has replaced all three – ISO 9001:
2000.
Certificates to the 1994 ver-
sions are no longer recognized as valid
by the national accreditation bodies
that make up the IAF (International
Accreditation Forum) and lose their
accredited status. The deadline and
transition were agreed on by ISO and
the IAF and announced prior to ISO’s
publication of ISO 9001:2000 on 15
December 2000.
ISO’s guidelines insist upon
reference to the full designation of ISO
9001:2000 (and not just “ISO 9001”)
in order to avoid any possibility of
confusion between certification to the
now only valid version and to the older
standard.
Among traps that ISO’s guideli-
nes will help organizations to avoid are
the misuse of ISO’s logo and name in
connection with certification. In fact,
ISO itself does not audit organizations
and does not issue ISO 9001:2000 or
ISO 14001 certificates. This is carried
out independently of ISO by more
than 750 certification bodies around
the world.
The guidelines also emphasize:
“ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 give
generic requirements for management
systems, not requirements for specific
products or services… ISO 9001:2000
and ISO 14001 certification marks of
conformity are not to be displayed on
products, on product labels, on product
packaging, or in any way that may be
interpreted as denoting product con-
formity.”
ISO Secretary-General Alan
Bryden commented: “ISO first
published such guidelines in 1993 and
they have been periodically updated
since then to assist users. We know
that we are meeting a market need
because, for example, a draft of the
latest version posted on ISO’s Web
site attracted 44 000 visitors within 21
weeks. ISO not only produces useful
standards – we also do what we can to
facilitate their use.”
Publicizing your ISO 9001:
2000 or ISO 14001 certification is
available in English (ISBN 92-67-
10385-7) and French (ISBN 92-67-
20385-1) editions as free downloads
from ISO’s Web site (www.iso.org),
or as a free brochure (for small quan-
tities – postage and handling charged
on larger orders) from ISO Central
Secretariat (sales@iso.org).
Next Issue
Main Focus
Conformity assessment. Experts
illustrate several aspects of what is
happening under the broad banner of
conformity assessment.
• Streamlining the structure of ISO’s
Committee on conformity assess-
ment (CASCO).
• The paths to developing a coherent
conformity assessment programme.
• How conformity assessment
processes oil the wheels of trade.
• Fundamentals of product certifica-
tion.
• A day in the life of a peer assessor.
• Management systems standards for
certification bodies.
• Certification services in developing
countries – the advantages of
using nationally based certification
bodies?
• Is self-declaration of conformity an
effective way to conserve consumer
confidence?
• Accreditation bodies – what is their
role?
Developments and initiatives
Confidence in second hand goods.
Standards exist in many countries,
but, with the onset of globalization, a
need has arisen to address this inter-
nationally. To protect consumers
against undue risk to health and safety
that may be inherent with the escala-
tion in trade of second-hand goods,
the feasibility and content of such a
standard is being assessed by a wor-
king group within ISO’s committee
for consumer policy.
Launch vehicle and spacecraft
interfaces. The space vehicles com-
munity is faced with an increasing
number of launch vehicles agencies.
The article reviews three new ISO
standards that will facilitate the
exchange of technical information
between spacecraft and launch vehi-
cles contractors, minimizing the risk
of errors resulting from misunderstan-
ding.
Fish in Uganda. A case history illus-
trating how the Ugandan fish industry
managed to regain sales and increase
exports.
Mechanical contraceptives. The
world of mechanical condoms is far
from static. The challenge for a tech-
nical committee engaged in standardi-
zing mechanical contraceptives is to
keep pace with new materials and
technologies, and to take into account
modern quality assurance techniques.
The Kids’ ISO 14000 Programme.
ISO is backing a Japanese non-
governmental programme that is to
help develop environmental awareness
among children. The Kids’ ISO 14000
programme is built on applying the
ISO 14001 approach in their homes
and communities and building up
networking between the young world-
wide to bring the force of collective
action to global environmental issues.
Training the trainers. With a view
to helping developing countries parti-
cipate more actively in standardization
activities, the approach of having expe-
rienced international trainers train
competent local trainers that can pass
on the knowledge to others has gained
considerable acceptance. The expe-
rience of Estonia is enlightening.
ISO Focus January 2004
 ISO.The source of ISO 9000, ISO 14000
and more than 13900 International Standards for
business, government and society.