Standard Bearers

For more than a century, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards, has been conducting the science that establishes the standards that touch nearly every aspect of life and work in America, from the doses of radiation in medical X-rays, to the broadest frequencies used by radio stations, to the level of protection in bullet-resistant vests used by police officers. In the wake of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, NIST has played a critical role in homeland security. Since 1999, the agency's Office of Law Enforcement Standards as been developing new terrorism-related standards and certification programs for the personal protective equipment used by law enforcement personnel, firefighters, hazardous material workers and other emergency response personnel. Using intelligence assessments, NIST has developed models to assess the risk posed by various chemicals to emergency responders. Based on that analysis, standards predicated on different scenarios will be established.