George, To add to your statements;---
It is not just cities that may require NRTL marking on equipment, but also the insurance carriers of the various businesses where the equipment is installed. In many cities the Fire Department inspects for NRTL markings on business premises; they don't normally do this in homes. Also, the city codes may include (and usually do) equipment installed in business locations, not just for the home consumer. After all they might be held liable for poor plumbing and electrical installations, and they don't want to be held liable. Tania Grant, tgr...@lucent.com <tgr...@lucent.com> Lucent Technologies, Communications Applications Group ---------- From: geor...@lexmark.com [SMTP:geor...@lexmark.com] Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 2:07 PM To: emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: U.S. National Product Safety "Laws" Here is my understanding of this issue relative to ITE. I post this both to inform, and solicit comments which could improve my understanding. The only U.S. Federal law I am aware of pertaining to product safety is that covered in 29 CFR 1900 (the OSHA section). Electrical equipment to be used in the U.S. workplace must either (1) comply with a detailed list of construction requirements, or (2) be "accepted, certified, listed, labelled, or otherwise determined to be safe by a nationally recognized testing laboratory" [29 CFR 1900.399 (a) (ii)]. There are seventeen OSHA approved NRTLs, half of which can test to UL 1950. Summary: For workplace ITE, an NRTL certification is the easiest option. Note that this is an option, not the only path. Note also that UL and other NRTLs are private companies, not U.S. government agencies. What about non-workplace ITE for consumers? These are outside the OSHA requirements. Some of the major cities in the U.S. (e.g. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) have local electrical codes that include the electrical requirements for household eletrical equipment. However, these are usually in the absence of any NRTL listing, which is generally acceptable. Summary: Again, an NRTL certification is the easiest path to market home electrical products in all parts of the U.S. One CAN find electrical products on the market that bear no agency markings that are being sold in ways that do not conform to OSHA requirements or city electrical codes. However, these tend to be very cheap low end products like Christmas lighting, extension cords, etc. The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) is a Federal agency. It does not establish product safety requirements. However, its mission is to identify and remove from the marketplace any products found prone to expose hazards. It is an "after-the-fact" enforcement agency that can apply pressure for a a product recall. Moral: A manufacturer can either negotiate the "mine field" of specific OSHA (for workplace) or city (for home use) electrical requirements, or go with an NRTL certification. George Alspaugh Corporate Product Safety Lexmark International Inc. --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators). --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).
