NFPA's Fire Prevention Week 2011 Highlights Family Safety
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) member and audited designator, is emphasizing the importance of fire safety during this year's Fire Prevention Week. NFPA has sponsored Fire Protection Week for over 90 years.
Held October 9 - 15, this year's Fire Prevention Week campaign focuses on keeping families and communities safer from fire. To help raise awareness of this important cause, NFPA is providing educational material and tip sheets on the leading causes of home fires, life-saving technologies, and the importance of home escape planning. Test your fire safety knowledge with NFPA's 2011 Fire Prevention Week Quiz.
Click here to learn more.
NSF International Standard for Personal Care Products Expanded to Allow Plant-Based Ingredients Certified to EU Organic Regulations
NSF International's American National Standard for personal care products containing organic ingredients has been expanded to allow plant-based ingredients certified to European Union (EU) organic regulations. Companies formulating personal care products to meet NSF/ANSI 305, Personal Care Products Containing Organic Ingredients, are now able to source from both U.S. National Organic Program (NOP)-certified ingredients and EU-certified ingredients suppliers.
"NSF/ANSI 305 opens up new growth opportunities for personal care companies whose products contain organic ingredients, and speaks to the globalization of the cosmetic supply chain," said Jane Wilson, standards director of NSF International. "Allowing equivalent EU-certified ingredients will harmonize NSF/ANSI 305 with global organic production without any loss of organic integrity."
An ANSI member and audited designator, NSF's mission is to protect human health and the environment through standards development, inspection, testing, and certification for the food, water, build/construction, retail, consumer products, chemical, and health science industries.
Visit NSF International's website for more information.
ASHRAE Extends New Faces of Engineering Program to College Students
To promote the accomplishments of junior and senior engineering students, ASHRAE has created New Faces of Engineering: College Edition as a way to highlight students' academic successes and contributions to the industry and ASHRAE. The program builds upon the success of ASHRAE's New Faces of Engineering program, which has highlighted engineers under the age of 30 since 2003.
Winners of the New Faces of Engineering: College Edition will be recognized in a full-page ad in the ASHRAE Journal and have their profile featured on the program's Facebook page. They will also receive a $1,000 scholarship.
"We see this as a way to highlight the future, offering a chance to showcase the exciting new talents that epitomize the dynamic innovations and advancements that are engineering," said ASHRAE president Ron Jarnagin. "We believe this program will provide stimulation and incentive for our college students. It will reflect the broad spectrum of engineering today, and demonstrate to the world where the next generation of engineers will take us."
Applications are now being accepted, through October 21, via the New Faces of Engineering: College Edition Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CollegeEdition. Further details, including eligibility requirements, can be found at www.ashrae.org/nfcollege.
AIM Global Announces Availability of New Chinese 2D Bar Code
AIM Global has announced the availability of Han Xin Code - a two-dimensional bar code. In addition to encoding double-byte Chinese characters (GB18030), Han Xin Code can encode numeric and ASCII characters , as well as octet bytes such as graphic and audio information.
An ANSI member and accredited standards developer, AIM Global supports the development of standards for automatic identification (auto ID) and data collection technologies.
"China is a vital and vibrant market for bar code technology, and the development of this symbology specification is a key for future global growth in the region," said AIM board chairman Chuck Evanhoe. "This symbology has already been deployed in a variety of applications within China, and this standard will help vendors and end users adopt it for additional applications with confidence."