NSF follows the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards development process. Standards are developed by joint committees (balanced stakeholder groups of public health, industry and user representatives). The NSF Council of Public Health Consultants (CPHC) serves as the independent, public health ratification step at the end of the process and provides final review and acceptance. CPHC members chair the joint committees to provide liaison between the council and joint committees.
Role of CPHC
CPHC members ensure that NSF standards protect public health. They are sometimes asked to provide guidance to NSF in the design and implementation of conformity and assessment programs in health, technology and environmental health safeguards. CPHC membership includes only representatives from government/regulatory, academia, public health and public service; there is no industry representation.
Role of Health Advisory Board (HAB)
The HAB is composed of expert toxicologists and risk assessors from government, academia and industry. HAB establishes maximum exposure levels for unregulated chemicals that have not been established by the U.S. EPA, Health Canada or other authoritative health body. This is especially relevant to the requirement for the establishment of action levels in NSF/ANSI Standards 60 and 61. Membership includes representatives from the EPA, Health Canada and the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Obtaining NSF Standards
As a public service, complimentary copies of NSF standards are available to regulators only and may be requested by completing our general inquiry form. Only one NSF standard may be requested per submission. The requester must attest that they are an active member of the federal, state or local regulatory community. The request must also agree not to share or distribute these copyrighted standards outside of their agency.
