Food Labels and Standards

A previous post on this blog about food standards and Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) discussed a proposed FDA rule for gluten free labeling of food.

Some recent articles by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, CSPI, relate broadly to the topic of food labeling; and in particular, advocate for standardizing food labels in a 158 page draft report, Food Labeling Chaos The Case for Reform.

While not strictly about standards, these other articles from CSPI provide additional background:

CSPI Urges FDA Crackdown on False & Misleading Food Labeling

Nutrition Action Healthletter: What the Label Doesn't Tell You

The ANSI Consumer Interest Forum (CIF) works to facilitate the representation of consumer interests in voluntary standards and conformity assessment activities.  Through the CIF, ANSI encourages consumer participation in the development of standards for consumer products and services to identify and meet consumer concerns and needs. Participation in the CIF is open to consumer representatives who are willing to actively participate in its work and who express an interest in membership. Membership in ANSI is not required.

Fall Protection Standards and Construction Safety Standards

New ANSI Fall Protection Standards: What They Mean to You By Thom Kramer, P.E., CSP, Nolan Miller in OHSonline identifies the ANSI Fall protection standards and gives background information on the development of these important safety standards. You can download individual ASSE ANSI Z359 Fall Protection standards discussed in this article, and a complete collection of Z359 Fall Protection standards which contains all the individual standards in one convenient package.

In addition, ANSI has British Standards for Fall Protection, ASTM, CSA (Canadian), IEEE, DIN, ONORM (Austrian), AS (Australia) and ISO standards for fall safety.  The ANSI/ASSE A10 Construction Package is a comprehensive compliation of the individual ANSI/ASSE A10 series of  construction safety standards.

The ASSE A10 standards provide the safety requirements for scaffolding, steel erection, safety nets and fall protection. Demolition operation standards address debris net systems, rope-guided and nonguided workers' hoists, commercial explosives and blasting agents, digger derricks, rigging qualifications and hearing loss prevention. The requirements for the safety of the public near construction sites and the health and safety of employees in construction enviroments are also supplied in this package which includes more than 30 construction and demolition standards.

You may also want to read the Analysis of Construction Fatalities - The OSHA Data Base 1985-1989 that analyzes the causes of fatalities. Of the cases that OSHA reviewed in the study, 33% of construction fatalities were from falls from elevation. Fall Protection: Complete OSHA Regulations are available from Amazon in paperback.

Demonstrating the Value of Standards - 2

A recent article on Concrete Fastening Systems website "Carbide Bits for Concrete Drilling Applications" touches on the value of standards and the confusion in the marketplace arising from non-standard drill bits. According to Michael Pistorino, "Many years ago, different manufacturers of anchors would manufacture anchors and bits to their own tolerances. This meant that carbide bits had to be manufactured and sold by a specific company. Confusion among customers resulted since different anchors were being used with different bits."

A copy of the ANSI B212.15-1994 standard is available free from the CCPA, Cemented Carbide Producers Association, which serves as Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC 29/SC 9, and is the Secretariat for the American Standards Committee B212. You can learn more about the work of the CCPA technical committees and how to become involved in standards activities.

New American National Standard published: "Quantities and Procedures for Description and Measurement of Underwater Sound from Ships- Part 1: General

The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) announced the publication of a new, voluntary consensus standard for the measurement of underwater noise from ships. The new standard is known as ANSI/ASA S12.64-2009/Part 1, “American National Standard Quantities and Procedures for Description and Measurement of Underwater Sound from Ships- Part 1: General Requirements”.

It is the first ASC S12 noise standard concerned with underwater sound and it is the first known civilian standard in the world for measuring the underwater sound from ships. The standard details requirements for instrumentation, measurement procedure, and data post-processing necessary to quantify a ship’s underwater radiated noise level referenced to a normalized distance of 1 meter.

S12/Working Group 47 is chaired by Michael Bahtiarian of Noise Control Engineering, Inc., and its membership includes professionals from government, academia and industry from the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Australia.

Coeliac Disease and Standards for Determination of Gluten Content

Proteins in wheat, barley and rye cause an autoimmune response in people with Coeliac Disease.

A. K. Akobeng & A. G. Thomas Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Booth Hall Children's Hospital, Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals, Manchester, UK published a study of how much gluten a person with Coeliac Disease can tolerate. The report concluded "The amount of tolerable gluten varies among people with coeliac disease. Although there is no evidence to suggest a single definitive threshold, a daily gluten intake of less than 10 mg is unlikely to cause significant histological abnormalities."

In 1982, the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) established labeling standards in its Standard for Gluten-Free Foods. These references provide some additional context in the labeling of foods in the US: Proposed Rule: Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods January 23, 2007 Questions and Answers on the Gluten-Free Labeling Proposed Rule January 23, 2007.

Dozens of international standards for the determination of gluten in wheat and wheat flour are available. The International Standards Organization, ISO Technical Committee 34 is responsible for standardization in the field of human and animal foodstuffs. ISO/TC 34 Food Products Subcommittee SC4 is concerned with Cereals and Pulses.

100 Q&A About Celiac Disease and Sprue: A Lahey Clinic Guide (100 Questions & Answers About) paperback available from Amazon.

ANSI/NEMA MW 1000-2008, Revision 1-2009 Magnet Wire

ANSI/NEMA MW 1000-2008, Revision 1-2009 Magnet Wire. MW 1000, is available from ANSI. NEMA MW 1000 provides general requirements, product specifications, and test procedures for magnet wire. This revision updates MW 1000-2008, which was published in March 2009. According to NEMA the revised publication features significant updates, including:

• Substantive changes to several test procedures in order to better define the equipment, materials, or test conditions that these procedures specify.
• Amended tests include the bond strength test procedure, the transformer oil resistance and hydrolytic stability test, and the high voltage continuity test
• New Appendix E, “General Rules for Rectangular Wire Dimensions”
• New definitions
• Reorganized table of requirements for bare rectangular wire
• Updated requirements and specifications

Feeds of new NEMA standards are an easy way to stay up to date with changes to standards that you rely on.

Demonstrating the Value of Standards

There were two articles in the news recently that illustrate the value of standards. Being standards people and consumers we understand the issue of compatability when our wall chargers are for 110 volt outlets and we are traveling outside the US or when we have a closet full of phone chargers and power supplies with different output voltages and a bewildering assortment of plugs and connectors.

One article shows how important standards are in assuring consumer satisfaction and the other shows that a proprietary standard led to a costly retrofit and a cybersecurity breach. One other point raised by the first article is that without standards, and voluntary compliance, the government can and does step in and occasionally makes laws when an industry doesn't govern its own behavior.

So for your reading enjoyment: US Moves to Ban Excessively Noisy TV Advertisements; and a matter of far more than inconvenience, Insurgents Hack US Drones pointing out that encrypting the video feeds was more difficult because [the drones'] "communications technology is proprietary, so widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people familiar with the matter."