The 6060 and the NFPA 99 and 55, 2027 

The 2027 revisions of the NFPA 99 and the NFPA 55 have now been voted at the June NFPA Technical Meeting.  Although one step remains, there does not appear to be any reason to expect it will not go forward, which means that the outlines of the new standard can already be seen at https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/nfpa-99-standard-development/99, clicking "Next Edition" (mid page), and there finding the First Draft and Second Draft Reports. 

Those drafts are not even close to the final format, which means that no one with your best interest in mind could recommend you actually do that - teasing out the actual result from the back and forth in those reports is a very complex and confusing task.  Hats off to the NFPA Editors who actually manage to do it and to produce a final, coherent book!

Note that this means the 99 and the 55 are now on the same cycle.  Previously the two updated in different cycles and therefore always were slightly out of sync. Having them together will simplify life substantially. 

Naturally we as 6060's need to be alert to the release of the new standard (likely to hit the streets in the fall). More to the point, unlike the 2021 - 2024 transition, which had few major changes, the 2024 - 2027 transition contains many that are particularly important to us in the design world.  

It is risky to discuss these changes while they are still passing through the cycle - there is one stage to pass through before issuance so it remains possible (albeit unlikely) there could be changes.  However, the timing is right for all good (and prospective) 6060's to begin to consider these in our design practice.

At the same time, the revised FGI Guidelines (now expected to be the 2026 FGI Guidelines) are overdue.  They will be retitled - now they will become "2026 FGI Codes for Planning and Design".  While the FGI does not contain a lot of medical gas design information, what it does contain is fundamental to the process. 

All in all, a lot to keep in mind alongside the basics of medical gas design itself.  So I will be developing a newsletter for all 6060's, present and yet to be. Please let me know if you are interested by going to www.savvy6060.net.

Next: Into the fray: Med Gases PDC: the Discovery Phase