Standards & Compliance Briefing: GHS 90 Days Away, Green Code, NSF/ANSI Standard 60

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has submitted a final rule to revise its Hazard Communication Standard to align with GHS, MSDSonline reported. The Office of Management and Budget now has less than 90 days to review the final rule before it becomes law, although it may request revisions.

This week, the International Code Council will hold final hearings on the International Green Construction Code. The New Building Institute said the code could be the nation’s first model green building code and the first to test actual building energy performance after a building is occupied. Several cities and states have already adopted parts of the code, including Rhode Island and Florida.

Hoping to put to rest the controversy involving dangerous levels of cadmium in children’s jewelry, the Fashion Jewelry & Accessories Trade Association announced that the ASTM F 15.24 Subcommittee on Children’s Jewelry approved a children’s jewelry safety standard with a migratable 300 ppm total weight content limit on cadmium. The standard will not be adopted until it clears a vote by the full membership of ASTM International.

NSF International announced that he has launched a new program to help manufacturers gain global market access for water treatment, distribution and plumbing products. The standards group said that the “NSF Passport Program: Your Access to Global Market Approvals” will help companies win product certifications in a range of international markets such as the United Kingdom, Brazil, and China.

ASTM International announced a new standard test method, ASTM C1745 / C1745M – 11, for measurement of hydraulic characteristics of hydrodynamic stormwater separators and underground settling devices. The standards group said its testing procedure will help companies develop the parameters necessary for a range of different devices.

Recently proposed changes to NSF/ANSI Standard 60 for drinking water systems may require new disinfection measures to curtail the use of sodium hypochlorite, Water World reported. New rules are being considered for the contaminates bromate, perchlorate and chlorate, all of which can be traced to sodium hypochlorite.

Three European recycling organizations are lobbying for a more accurate statistical method to calculate the size of electronic waste scrap piles as the European Union continues rewriting the WEEE Directive, Recycling International reported. The three organizations say it would be most accurate to combine two competing statistical methods, one where collection rate is expressed in terms of total e-wasteoccurrence and one where the level of appliances placed on the market is also taken into account.

LUXADD, a maker of linear fluorescent lighting systems, announced that it has received UL certification for its Express T5 Retrofit Kit for T12. The company said its product is the only such kit available in the U.S that does require changing or rewiring a ballast.