Service
UL Solutions helps independent service providers (ISPs), departments and manufacturers verify the cleaning efficacy of firefighter turnout gear in accordance with NFPA 1850.
With services designed to support today’s consolidated NFPA personal protective equipment (PPE) landscape and adjacent respiratory protection needs, our safety science teams bring independent, objective testing, program guidance and field support so you can protect responders and document compliance across your PPE program.
In 2025, the introduction of NFPA 1850 combined NFPA 1851 and NFPA 1852 into a single standard, reflecting evolving approaches to testing, documentation and maintenance related to PPE.
For additional information on updates to NFPA 1850, we encourage you to visit our spotlight series of videos.
Independent verification of cleaning efficacy
Pretreatment screening to save time and cost
Flexible on-site or remote support
Deep standards expertise, active committee participation
Health and safety backed by safety science
Our chemical and biological protection laboratories support NFPA 1850 evaluations that include bacterial decontamination (e.g., Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus), VOC removal and heavy metal decontamination analysis.
We provide independent, objective, expert feedback and guide you through the verification process, from prescreening to on‑site/remote witnessing and final reporting. Our global network also allows us to leverage our PPE laboratories and multi-standard certification capabilities when needed.
NFPA PPE standards continue to evolve and consolidate. UL Solutions experts help you translate your existing NFPA 1850 cleaning verification into today’s PPE program expectations and terminology. We also understand the importance of keeping pace with broader consolidation activity across firefighting ensembles, such as NFPA 1970, bringing multiple product standards together.
UL Solutions can help you align your turnout gear cleaning verification and documentation with the current NFPA framework and your department’s PPE policies. For official standard text, consult NFPA.
UL Solutions also tests and certifies SCBA and personal alert safety systems (PASS) to NFPA 1970, enabling a more complete view of your firefighting ensemble program as you update procedures and training.
Talk to our PPE team to scope your NFPA 1850 cleaning verification and align with today’s NFPA PPE terminology, including NFPA 1850 references in your policies. Explore adjacent services for first responder and emergency PPE testing and certification and SCBA/PASS.
To ensure the safety of firefighters across the country, we can help confirm that your in-service fire department ground ladders are compliant with industry standards.
Cleaning efficacy testing consists of testing in a standardized way so that service providers, manufacturers or fire departments know how well they are able to remove certain contaminants. The testing is performed on swatches with known amounts of contaminants on each swatch. After contamination occurs, the swatches are sent to the cleaning facility so that they can launder them according to their internal processes. After washing, samples are returned to the test laboratory to evaluate how much of each contaminant remains on those samples. The cleaning efficiency result is calculated by comparing the amount dosed on the sample to the amount left after cleaning.
No, using finished garments is costly and would be difficult to standardize. Lack of standardized testing results in variability in results and therefore would not be considered reliable for determining the minimum performance of the laundering procedure.
No, the standard requires that the facility perform minimum services in order to be verified. There are only two options for verification:
You can show compliance with the new requirement by one of the following methods:
Yes. All testing results for each ISP, Cleaner Only, Manufacturer Verified in Cleaning and Organization will be published on UL Product iQ. This information is provided via a clickable link at the bottom of the listing.