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Elevator Safety Code
Elevator, escalator and moving walk systems are among the most complicated systems in any urban environment, no less so than on the #WiseCampus in which many large research universities have 100 to 1000 elevators to safely and economically operate, service and continuously commission. These systems are regulated heavily at state and local levels of government and have oversight from volunteers that are passionate about their work.
These “movement systems” are absorbed into the Internet of Things transformation. Lately we have tried to keep pace with the expansion of requirements to include software integration professionals to coordinate the interoperability of elevators, lifts and escalators with building automation systems for fire safety, indoor air quality and disaster management. Much of work requires understanding of the local adaptations of national building codes.
Some university elevator O&M units use a combination of in-house, manufacturer and standing order contractors to accomplish their safety and sustainability objectives.
In the United States the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is the dominant standards developer of elevator and escalator system best practice titles; its breakdown of technical committees listed in the link below:
C&S Connect: ASME Proposals Available for Public Review
Public consultation on a new standard for electrical inspector qualifications closes May 27th.
ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7 – 20XX, Performance-based code for elevators and escalators (280 pages)
Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators
Guide for Inspection of Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Walks
Guide for Elevator Seismic Design
As always, we encourage facility managers, elevator shop personnel to participate directly in the ASME Codes & Standards development process. For example, it would be relatively easy for our colleagues in the Phoenix, Arizona region to attend one or more of the technical committee meetings; ideally with operating data and a solid proposal for improving the A17 suite.
University of Wisconsin Stadium Elevator
All ASME standards are on the agenda of our Mechanical, Pathway and Elevator & Lift colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconferences; open to everyone. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Issue: [11-50]
Category: Electrical, Elevators, #WiseCampus
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel
More:
Bibliography: Elevators, Lifts and Moving Walks
ISO/TC 178 Lifts, escalators and moving walks
Elevators and Conveying Systems
Latest 2024 / 2025 / 2026 Code Development: Group B Documents
Partial selection of topics:
ADM39-25 IFC: 105.6.26 (New) | p 224
G52-25 403.6.1 Fire service access elevator | p 556
SECTION 3003 EMERGENCY OPERATIONS | p 557
TABLE 403.6.1 AMBULANCE STRETCHER-SIZED ELEVATOR CAR
Add new standards EN 8, EN 77 (Seismic condition design) and ISO 8002 | p 758
SECTION 3006 ELEVATOR LOBBIES AND HOISTWAY OPENING PROTECTION | p 762
3002.3 Emergency signs | p 765
3002.4 Elevator car to accommodate ambulance stretcher. | p 774
(To be continued)
Variations in Backup Power Requirements for Elevators
Group B Proposed Changes 2024 Editions Complete Monograph (2630 Pages)
The International Code Council bibliography of elevator safety practice incorporates titles published by American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Fire Protection Association and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. The relevant section of the International Building Code is therefore relatively short and linked below.
2021 International Building Code: Chapter 30 Elevators and Conveying Systems
The 2021 IBC is the current edition but committees are now forming to developed the 2024 revision according to the schedule in the link below:
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES
Comments on changes to the Group A tranche of titles will be heard in Long Beach California, October 23-31st.
Life Safety Code
Educational and Day-Care Occupancies (July 23, 2025 Second Draft Transcript)
The Life Safety Code addresses those construction, protection, and occupancy features necessary to minimize danger to life from the effects of fire, including smoke, heat, and toxic gases created during a fire. It is widely incorporated by reference into public safety statutes; typically coupled with the consensus products of the International Code Council. It is a mighty document — one of the NFPA’s leading titles — so we deal with it in pieces; consulting it for decisions to be made for the following:
(1) Determination of the occupancy classification in Chapters 12 through 42.
(2) Determination of whether a building or structure is new or existing.
(3) Determination of the occupant load.
(4) Determination of the hazard of contents.
There are emergent issues — such as active shooter response, integration of life and fire safety systems on the internet of small things — and recurrent issues such as excessive rehabilitation and conformity criteria and the ever-expanding requirements for sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers with which to reckon. It is never easy telling a safety professional paid to make a market for his product or service that it is impossible to be alive and safe. It is even harder telling the dean of a department how much it will cost to bring the square-footage under his stewardship up to the current code.
The 2021 edition is the current edition and is accessible below:
NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Free Public Access
Public input on the 2027 Revision will be received until June 4, 2024. Public comment on the Second Draft 2027 Revision will be received until March 31, 2026.
Since the Life Safety Code is one of the most “living” of living documents — the International Building Code and the National Electric Code also move continuously — we can start anywhere and anytime and still make meaningful contributions to it. We have been advocating in this document since the 2003 edition in which we submitted proposals for changes such as:
• A student residence facility life safety crosswalk between NFPA 101 and the International Building Code
• Refinements to Chapters 14 and 15 covering education facilities (with particular attention to door technologies)
• Identification of an ingress path for rescue and recovery personnel toward electric service equipment installations.
• Risk-informed requirement for installation of grab bars in bathing areas
• Modification of the 90-minute emergency lighting requirements rule for small buildings and for fixed interval testing
• Modification of emergency illumination fixed interval testing
• Table 7.3.1 Occupant Load revisions
• Harmonization of egress path width with European building codes
There are others. It is typically difficult to make changes to stabilized standard though some of the concepts were integrated by the committee into other parts of the NFPA 101 in unexpected, though productive, ways. Example transcripts of proposed 2023 revisions to the education facility chapter is linked below:
Chapter 14 Public Input Report: New Educational Occupancies
Educational and Day Care Occupancies: Second Draft Public Comments with Responses Report
Since NFPA 101 is so vast in its implications we list a few of the sections we track, and can drill into further, according to client interest:
Chapter 3: Definitions
Chapter 7: Means of Egress
Chapter 12: New Assembly Occupancies
Chapter 13: Existing Assembly Occupancies
Chapter 16 Public Input Report: New Day-Care Facilities
Chapter 17 Public Input Report: Existing Day Care Facilities
Chapter 18 Public Input Report: New Health Care Facilities
Chapter 19 Public Input Report: Existing Health Care Facilities
Chapter 28: Public Input Report: New Hotels and Dormitories
Chapter 29: Public Input Report: Existing Hotels and Dormitories
Chapter 43: Building Rehabilitation
Annex A: Explanatory Material
As always we encourage front-line staff, facility managers, subject matter experts and trade associations to participate directly in the NFPA code development process (CLICK HERE to get started)
NFPA 101 is a cross-cutting title so we maintain it on the agenda of our several colloquia —Housing, Prometheus, Security and Pathways colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [18-90]
Category: Fire Safety, Public Safety
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Josh Elvove, Joe DeRosier, Marcelo Hirschler
More
When lives are at stake, alternative approaches are welcome. #LifeSafety #AlternativeApproaches #Code #NFPA101 @NFPA
https://t.co/JvWyyZtuLP— ANSI (@ansidotorg) December 20, 2018
Debating Society
The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a historic debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. The society was founded in 1815 making it the oldest continuously running debating society in the world.
The Union has served as a model for the foundation of similar societies at several other prominent universities, including the Oxford Union and the Yale Political Union. The Union is a private society with membership open to all students of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University.
“This House Believes Modern Conservatism is Incompatible with Democracy” Play All
The Cambridge Union is a registered charity and is completely separate from the Cambridge University Students’ Union.
The Cambridge Union Debating Society hosts its events primarily on Thursdays during the academic term at the University of Cambridge. Their flagship events include:
Thursday Night Debates: Held weekly in the Debating Chamber, these are the highlight of the Union’s schedule, featuring prominent speakers and students debating topical issues. Debates typically start at 8:00 PM, but exact times may vary, and some are livestreamed on platforms like YouTube.
Keynote Speaker Events: These occur approximately twice a week, involving interviews and Q&A sessions with notable figures. Timing varies but often aligns with evening slots to accommodate student schedules.
Social and Special Events: Events like balls, workshops, or themed nights (e.g., Zumba, Eurovision parties) are scattered throughout the term, often on weekends or evenings. These may be free or discounted for members.
Competitive Debating Events: The Union organizes competitions like the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition, with regional rounds typically between January and March and Finals Day on a Saturday or Sunday in spring.
Specific dates and times are detailed in the Union’s termcard, published each term (Michaelmas, Lent, Easter) on their website (cus.org) or platforms like Issuu. For precise schedules, check the Cambridge Union’s official website or contact them at info@cus.org, as their membership portal occasionally undergoes maintenance, which may delay updates.
Events are generally held at their Bridge Street premises, with some open to the public or livestreamed. Membership provides access to exclusive events and discounts.
UK is done.
Who is next? pic.twitter.com/GSRH21pWKL— Afghan Zoroastrian (@AfgZoroastrian) April 18, 2025
Truly unsettling scenes unfolding in Ireland lately.
An Irish woman looks on in shock as a crowd of migrants are moved into a taxpayer funded hotel. pic.twitter.com/7tBCQuI89c
— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) March 29, 2025
print (“Hello World!”)
Data Points (2023 Estimates for 193 countable nations):
Global Gross Domestic Product (GGDP) ~ $106.17T
Anglosphere (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) ~ $31T (or ~32% of GGDP)
United States GDP $27T (or about 1/3rd of GGDP)
“Livres des Merveilles du Monde” 1300 | Marco Polo | Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Today we break down consultations on titles relevant to the technology and management of the real assets of education communities in the United States specifically; but with sensitivity to the global education markets where thousands of like-minded organizations also provide credentialing, instruction, research, a home for local fine arts and sport.
We steer away from broad policy issues and steer toward technical specifics of public consultations presented by national member bodies of the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Organization for Standardization, the International Telecommunications Union and the American National Standards Institute. If there is a likelihood that the titles published by these workgroups will be incorporated by reference into public safety or sustainability legislation; or integrated into the cost structure of education communities in any other way, we will listen carefully and contribute meaningfully where we can.
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations | 1961
| “Even apart from the instability due to speculation, there is the instability due to the characteristic of human nature that a large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than on a mathematical expectation, whether moral or hedonistic or economic. Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits — a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities. Enterprise only pretends to itself to be mainly actuated by the statements in its own prospectus, however candid and sincere that prospectus may be. Only a little more than an expedition to the South Pole is it based on an exact calculation of benefits to come. Thus if the animal spirits are dimmed and the spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die; — though fears of loss may have a basis no more reasonable than hopes of profit had before.”
“The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” — John Maynard Keynes, 1936 |
American National Standards Institute
Setting the standard: Grange members can be voice of rural users in standardization system
ISO/IEC/ITU coordination – Listing of New Work Items (New: Passwords Required)
New ANSI Education Initiative Supports the Next Generation of Standardization Leaders
International Code Council
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE (3/17/2023)
International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission | CDV Consultations
IEC Open Consultations: 20 December
IEC 87th General Meeting | Cairo, 22 – 26 October
Results from IEC General Assembly 2022 | San Francisco
Extended Versions Certain standards are required to be read in tandem with another standard, which is known as a reference (or parent) document. The extended version (EXV) of an IEC Standard facilitates the user to be able to consult both IEC standards simultaneously in a single, easy-to-use document.
International Telecommunications Union
The case for standardizing homomorphic encryption
Outcomes of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference
World Radiocommunication Conference
International Standardization Organization
How ISO codes connect the world
New partnership for ISO and ICC
Must-have skills for the green economy
A partial list of projects with which we have been engaged as an active participant; starting with the original University of Michigan enterprise in the late 1990’s and related collaborations with IEEE and others: (In BOLD font we identify committees with open consultations requiring a response from US stakeholders before next month’s Hello World! colloquium)
IEC/TC 8, et al System aspects of electrical energy supply
IEC/TC 22 Power electronic systems and equipment
IEC/TC 62 Electrical equipment in medical practice
IEC/TC 64 Electrical installations and protection against electric shock
IEC/TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems
IEC/SYC Electrotechnical Aspects of Smart Cities
Standards Michigan Workspace for IEC/ITU Consultations
ISO/IEC JTC 1 Information Technology, et. al
ISO/TC 205 Building environmental design
ISO/TC 229 Nanotechnologies
ISO/TC 232 Education and Learning Services
ISO/TC 260 Human Resource Management
ISO/TC 267 Facility Management
ISO/TC 268 Sustainable cities and communities
ISO/TC 301 Energy management and energy savings
ISO/TC 304 Healthcare organization management
We collaborate with the appropriate ANSI US TAG; or others elsewhere in academia. We have begun tracking ITU titles with special attention to ITU Radio Communication Sector.
main( ) { printf("hello, world\n"); }
We have collaborations with Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Sapienza – Università di Roma, Universität Zürich, Universität Potsdam, Université de Toulouse. Universidade Federal de Itajubá, University of Windsor, the University of Alberta, to name a few — most of whom collaborate with us on electrotechnology issues. Standards Michigan and its 50-state affiliates are (obviously) domiciled in the United States. However, and for most issues, we defer to the International Standards expertise at the American National Standards Institute
ANSI INTERACTIVE MAP: INTERNATIONAL TRADE & DEVELOPMENT
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
These three regions make up 50% of world GDP
More
Data Point: Global Construction Market is Expected to Reach $11 trillion by 2031
General Public Participation in ANSI ISO Activities
March 2021 edition of the TMB Communiqué.
ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement
International Electrotechnical Commission Annual Report 2019
ANSI Education & Training Overview
ITU Digital Technical Standards
* A “Hello, World!” program generally is a computer program that outputs or displays the message “Hello, World!”. Such a program is very simple in most programming languages (such as Python and Javascript) and is often used to illustrate the basic syntax of a programming language. It is often the first program written by people learning to code. It can also be used as a sanity test to make sure that a computer language is correctly installed, and that the operator understands how to use it.
Freely Available ICT Standards
United States Technical Advisory Group Administrator: INCITS
TC 64 Electrical installations and protection against electric shock
“Le Lac Léman ou Près d’Evian au lac de Genève” 1883 François BocionISO and IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 is the work center for international information and communications technology (ICT) standards that are relevant to education communities. In accordance with ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the ISO and IEC Councils, some International Standards and other deliverables are made freely available for standardization purposes.
Freely Available International Standards
We at least follow action, and sometimes contribute data and user-interest perspective, to the development of standards produced by several ANSI-accredited ICT standard developing organizations — ATIS, BICSI, IEEE, INCITS, TIA among them. US-based organizations may communicate directly with Lisa Rajchel, ANSI’s ISO/IEC JTC 1 Senior Director for this project: lrajchel@ansi.org. Our colleagues at other educational organizations should contact their national standards body.
We scan the status of Infotech and Cloud standards periodically and collaborate with a number of IEEE Societies. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
More
The ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee for Information Technology (JTC 1)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 Information technology for learning, education and training
Healthcare Organization Management
Open consultations:
US TAG is transferred to Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation from InGenesis. Administrative details in process. Stay tuned.
ISO FDIS 16473 Healthcare organization pandemic response information management standard | Comments due September 4th
VF_40_2025_-_Re-allocation_of_ISO_TC_304_ | Comments due July 17th
ISO_DIS 20364 Pandemic Response Standard Draft Open for Public Consultation Comments due July 1
ISO Healthcare Management Comments on Smart Hospital Standard due January 15
Send Mike a message to coordinate comments (maanthon@umich.edu)
“Une leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière” 1887 André Brouillet
ISO Technical Committees | ANSI (U.S. Participation in ISO Activities)
Many large research universities have significant medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises. The leadership of those enterprises discount the effect of standards like this at their peril. It is easy to visualize that this document will have as transformative effect upon the healthcare industry as the ISO 9000 series of management standards in the globalization of manufacturing.
Standardization in the field of healthcare organization management comprising, terminology, nomenclature, recommendations and requirements for healthcare-specific management practices and metrics (e.g. patient-centered staffing, quality, facility-level infection control, pandemic management, hand hygiene) that comprise the non-clinical operations in healthcare entities.
Excluded are horizontal organizational standards within the scope of:
-
- quality management and quality assurance (TC 176);
- human resource management (TC 260);
- risk management (TC 262);
- facility management (TC 267), and;
- occupational health and safety management (TC 283).
Also excluded are standards relating to clinical equipment and practices, enclosing those within the scope of TC 198 Sterilization of health care products.
This committee is led by the US Technical Advisory Group Administrator —Ingenesis. The committee is very active at the moment, with new titles drafted, reviewed and published on a near-monthly basis,
DPAS ballot for ISO PAS 23617- Healthcare organization management: Pandemic response (respiratory) —Guidelines for medical support of socially vulnerable groups – Comments due 16 October
[Issue 14-99]
Contact: Lee Webster (lswebste@utmb.edu, lwebster@ingenesis.com), Mike Anthony (mike@standardsmichigan.com), Jack Janveja (jjanveja@umich.edu), Richard Robben (rrobben1952@gmail.com), James Harvey (jharvey@umich.edu), Christine Fischer (chrisfis@umich.edu), Dr Veronica Muzquiz Edwards (vedwards@ingenesis.com)
Category: Health, Global
More
ISO Focus Special Issue on Healthcare
ISO/TC 48 Laboratory equipment
ISO/TC 212 Clinical laboratory testing and in vitro diagnostic test systems
ISO/TC 198 Sterilization of health care products
Four years ago Mom made a surprise visit to the ‘Hyacinth Chen School of Nursing’. Was always her dream that young women, especially from poor families, fulfil theirs to become nurses. The students were ecstatic to actually see a lady they only knew as a painting on the wall. pic.twitter.com/LBHHCLVhKy
— Wayne Chen (@wcchen) June 1, 2022
- The American National Standards Institute — the Global Secretariat for ISO — does not provide content management systems for its US Technical Advisory Groups. Because of the nascent committee, inspired by the work of Lee Webster at the University of Texas Medical Branch needed a content management system, we have been managing content on a Google Site facility on a University of Michigan host since 2014.Earlier this spring, the University of Michigan began upgrading its Google Sites facility which requires us to offload existing content onto the new facility before the end of June. That process is happening now. Because of this it is unwise for us to open the content library for this committee publicly. Respecting copyright, confidentiality of ISO and the US Technical Advisory Group we protect most recent content in the link below and invite anyone to click in any day at 15:00 (16:00) UTC. Our office door is open every day at this hour and has been for the better part of ten years.
Academia
US National Telecommunications and Information Administration | Federal Communications Commission
ITU & IEC Campus Geneva
Canadian Parliament Debate on Standards Incorporated by Reference
“The Jack Pine” | Tom Thomson (1916) | National Gallery of Canada
Originally posted January 2014
In these clips — selected from Canadian Parliamentary debate in 2013 — we observe three points of view about Incorporation by reference (IBR); a legislative drafting technique that is the act of including a second document within a main document by referencing the second document.
This technique makes an entire second (or referenced) document a part of the main document. The consensus documents in which we advocate #TotalCostofOwnership concepts are incorporated by reference into legislation dealing with safety and sustainability at all levels of government. This practice — which many consider a public-private partnership — is a more effective way of driving best practices for technology, and the management of technology, into regulated industries.
Parent legislation — such as the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Clean Air Act and the Energy Policy Act – almost always require intermediary bureaucracies to administer the specifics required to accomplish the broad goals of the legislation. With the gathering pace of governments everywhere expanding their influence over larger parts of the technologies at the foundation of national economies; business and technology standards are needed to secure that influence. These standards require competency in the application of political, technical and financial concepts; competencies that can only be afforded by incumbent interests who build the cost of their advocacy into the price of the product or service they sell to our industry. Arguably, the expansion of government is a reflection of the success of incumbents in business and technical standards; particularly in the compliance and conformity industries.
About two years ago, the US debate on incorporation by reference has been taken to a new level with the recent statement released by the American Bar Association (ABA):
16-164-Incorporation-by-Reference-ABA-Resolution-and-Report
The American National Standards Institute responded to the ABA with a statement of its own.
16-164-ANSI-Response-to-ABA-IBR-06-16 (1)
The incorporation by reference policy dilemma has profound implications for how we safely and economically design, operate and maintain our “cities-within-cities” in a sustainable manner but, admittedly, the results are only visible in hindsight over a time horizon that often exceed the tenure of a typical college or university president.
A recent development — supporting the claims of ANSI and its accredited standards developers — is noteworthy:
U.S. District Court Rules in Favor of Copyright Protection for Standards Incorporated by Reference into Federal Reg https://t.co/Tw2OnpMqua pic.twitter.com/i84fjUvQDS
— ANSI (@ansidotorg) February 13, 2017
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) manages a website — Standards.GOV — that is a single access point for consensus standards incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulations: Standards Incorporated by Reference Database. Note that this database does not include specific reference to safety and sustainability codes which are developed by standards setting organizations (such as NFPA, ICC, IEEE, ASHRAE and others) and usually incorporated by reference into individual state public safety and technology legislation.
LEARN MORE:
We applaud the Federal Government’s commitment to fund free access to the National Building Codes that are developed by the @NRC_CNRC. As a not-for-profit developer of standards that contribute to the health, safety and well-being of Canadians, CSA Group…https://t.co/QqhdkDvb7s pic.twitter.com/1KRDvxDTaC
— CSA Group (@CSA_Group) November 23, 2018
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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