Z590 ANSI Draft Standard Editing Taskforce Meeting - Communiqué

Des Plaines, IL (January 28, 2000) - The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), secretariat of the accredited American National Standard Institute (ANSI) project titled: Z590, Establishing Levels of Competence in the Safety Profession, issued the following statement concerning the recent meeting of the Z590 Editing Task Force held to address the ongoing development of the proposed Z590 Standard.

On January 21, 2000, members of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), with representation from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), and the National Safety Council (NSC), met at ASSE headquarters in Des Plaines, Illinois, to review the current draft of the proposed standard. The meeting, chaired by Jerry Williams, ASSE member and former Vice President of the ASSE Council on Professional Affairs (CoPA), was an important step in the Society's standards writing process.

The intent of the meeting was to work a revised draft of the standard and ready it for initial approval within ASSE's leadership structure. Following such approval, the document will then be submitted to the approved Canvass List, and offered for a second public review. All interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to review the draft standard and provide comments after its official release. It is requested that all interested stakeholders review the ASSE website at http://www.asse.org, in the folder titled ASSE News on a periodic basis for information to see when such a review will take place and how the draft standard can be ordered at the time of its release. The secretariat does not believe the document will be ready for review until sometime in the late spring of Year 2000. In addition to the website, ASSE will also publish the Notice to Comment in ANSI Standards Action, distribute information to all ASSE Chapters, and release a statement to the press.

The purpose of the 1/21/2000 meeting was to accomplish the following:

• Understand major viewpoints to the standard's content by section.
• Work toward reaching a consensus on framework and general approach to the standard.
• Present recommendations and edits to improve the existing draft document.