Abbreviation | CSA |
---|---|
Formation | 1919 |
Purpose | Standards organization |
Headquarters | 178 Rexdale Blvd. Toronto, ON M9W 1R3 |
Coordinates | 43°42′44.56″N79°34′19.03″W / 43.7123778°N 79.5719528°W |
Region served | Canada, United States, Asia, Europe |
President & CEO | David Weinstein |
Website | www |
The CSA Group (formerly the Canadian Standards Association; CSA) is a standards organization which develops standards in 57 areas. CSA publishes standards in print and electronic form, and provides training and advisory services. CSA is composed of representatives from industry, government, and consumer groups.
CSA began as the Canadian Engineering Standards Association (CESA) in 1919, federally chartered to create standards. [1] [2] During World War I, lack of interoperability between technical resources led to the formation of a standards committee.
CSA is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada, a crown corporation which promotes voluntary standardization in Canada. [3] [4] This accreditation verifies that CSA is competent to carry out standards development and certification functions, and is based on internationally recognised criteria and procedures. [5]
The CSA registered mark shows that a product has been independently tested and certified to meet recognized standards for safety or performance.
During World War I, lack of interoperability between technical resources led to frustration, injury, and death. Britain requested that Canada form a standards committee.[ citation needed ]
Sir John Kennedy, as chairman of the Civil Engineers' Canadian Advisory Committee, led the investigation into the necessity of an independent Canadian standards organization. As a result, the Canadian Engineering Standards Association (CESA) was established in 1919. [6] CESA was federally chartered to create standards. [2] At the beginning, they attended to specific needs: aircraft parts, bridges, building construction, electrical work, and wire rope. The first standards issued by CESA were for steel railway bridges, in 1920.[ citation needed ]
In 1927, CESA published the Canadian Electrical Code. [6] Enforcing the code called for product testing, and in 1933, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario became the sole source for testing nationwide. In 1940, CESA assumed responsibility for testing and certifying electrical products intended for sale and installation in Canada. CESA was renamed the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) in 1944. [6] The certification mark was introduced in 1946.[ citation needed ]
Known in the French-language as Association canadienne de normalisation, CSA used the French-language acronym of ACNOR. The initialism "CSA" is now used in both official languages. [7]
In the 1950s, CSA established international alliances in Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands, to expand its scope in testing and certification. Testing labs were expanded from their first in Toronto, to labs in Montreal, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.[ citation needed ]
In the 1960s, CSA developed national occupational health and safety standards, creating standards for headgear and safety shoes. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the CSA began to expand its involvement in consumer standards, including bicycles, credit cards, and child resistant packaging for drugs.[ citation needed ]
Tom Pashby became chairman of the CSA in 1975, serving for two decades to set standards for manufacturers of ice hockey helmets and lacrosse helmets. [8] [9]
In 1984, CSA established QMI, the Quality Management Institute for registration of ISO9000 and other standards. In 1999, CSA International was established to provide international product testing and certification services while CSA shifted its primary focus to standards development and training. In 2001, these three divisions were joined under the name CSA Group. In 2004, OnSpeX was launched as the fourth division of CSA Group. In 2008, QMI was sold to SAI-Global for $40 million.[ citation needed ]
CSA exists to develop standards. Among the fifty-seven different areas of specialization are business management and safety and performance standards, including those for electrical and electronic equipment, industrial equipment, boilers and pressure vessels, compressed gas handling appliances, environmental protection, and construction materials.
Most standards are voluntary, meaning there are no laws requiring their application.[ citation needed ] Despite that, adherence to standards is beneficial to companies because it shows products have been independently tested to meet certain standards. The CSA mark is a registered certification mark, and can only be applied by someone who is licensed or otherwise authorised to do so by the CSA.
CSA developed the CAN/CSA Z299 series, now called N299, of quality assurance standards, which are still in use today. They are an alternative to the ISO 9001 quality management standard, specific to companies supplying goods to nuclear power plants. Currently[ when? ] forty percent of all the standards issued by CSA are referenced in Canadian legislation.[ citation needed ]
Laws in many jurisdictions in North America require that certain products be tested for standards compliance by a body officially recognized for that purpose. CSA Group is accredited to do so in a variety of areas by the SCC [11] in Canada and OSHA [12] in the United States (as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory).
Conformance testing — an element of conformity assessment, and also known as compliance testing, or type testing — is testing or other activities that determine whether a process, product, or service complies with the requirements of a specification, technical standard, contract, or regulation. Testing is often either logical testing or physical testing. The test procedures may involve other criteria from mathematical testing or chemical testing. Beyond simple conformance, other requirements for efficiency, interoperability, or compliance may apply. Conformance testing may be undertaken by the producer of the product or service being assessed, by a user, or by an accredited independent organization, which can sometimes be the author of the standard being used. When testing is accompanied by certification, the products or services may then be advertised as being certified in compliance with the referred technical standard. Manufacturers and suppliers of products and services rely on such certification including listing on the certification body's website, to assure quality to the end user and that competing suppliers are on the same level.
Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in hazardous environments such as industrial or construction sites to protect the head from injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, and electric shock, as well as from rain. Suspension bands inside the helmet spread the helmet's weight and the force of any impact over the top of the head. A suspension also provides space of approximately 30 mm between the helmet's shell and the wearer's head, so that if an object strikes the shell, the impact is less likely to be transmitted directly to the skull. Some helmet shells have a mid-line reinforcement ridge to improve impact resistance. The rock climbing helmet fulfills a very similar role in a different context and has a very similar design.
A steel-toe boot is a durable boot or shoe that has a protective reinforcement in the toe which protects the foot from falling objects or compression. Safety shoes are effective in keeping the feet of industrial workers safe from sharp and heavy objects while working in factories.
A hockey helmet is worn by players of ice hockey, inline hockey, and bandy to help protect the head from potential injury when hit by the puck, sticks, skates, boards, other players, or the ice. The shell of a hockey helmet is generally made of a substance called vinyl nitrile that disperses force from the point of contact, while the liner may be made of either vinyl nitrile foam, expanded polypropylene foam, or other material to absorb the energy, to reduce the chances of concussion. Hockey helmets grip the head from inside by cupping the back of head, or the occipital protuberance. Helmet manufacturers will have a chart that relates their helmet sizes to head measurements. On older models, the helmet size is adjusted by loosening the screws on the side to slide the front portion forward or back.
Sira is a UK-based notified body, specialising in ATEX, IECEX and North American product approvals.
Thomas Joseph Pashby was a Canadian ophthalmologist and sport safety advocate. He spent 46 years improving the safety of hockey helmets to prevent injuries in ice hockey, by developing visors and wire face masks, and advocating for neck protection on goaltender masks. He served two decades as chairman of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), setting standards for manufacturers of hockey and lacrosse helmets.
The Kitemark is a UK product and service quality trade mark which is owned and operated by the British Standards Institution.
Product certification or product qualification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests, and meets qualification criteria stipulated in contracts, regulations, or specifications.
The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) (French: Conseil canadien des normes (CCN)) is a Canadian crown corporation with the mandate to promote voluntary standardization in Canada. The SCC is responsible for:
A safety harness is a form of protective equipment designed to safeguard the user from injury or death from falling. The core item of a fall arrest system, the harness is usually fabricated from rope, braided wire cable, or synthetic webbing. It is attached securely to a stationary object directly by a locking device or indirectly via a rope, cable, or webbing and one or more locking devices. Some safety harnesses are used in combination with a shock-absorbing lanyard, which is used to regulate deceleration and thereby prevent a serious G-force injury when the end of the rope is reached.
The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies standards certification services for business and personnel.
A certification listing is a document used to guide installations of certified products, against which a field installation is compared to make sure that it complies with a regulation. Typically, products or items are required to be installed or used in accordance with a subject-related certification listing if those products or items are subject to product certification and must be used in a specific manner in order to be safe for use. Certification listings are issued by organisations that are usually nationally accredited for doing both testing and product certification work, in accordance with nationally accredited standards.
Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory is the term used by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration to identify third-party organizations that have the necessary qualifications to perform safety testing and certification of products covered within OSHA and each organization's scopes. The testing and certification are conducted in accordance with U.S. consensus-based product safety test standards developed or issued by U.S. standards organizations
Divers Institute of Technology (DIT) is a private, for-profit educational institution for the training of commercial divers and located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1968 in Seattle, Washington, Divers Institute of Technology is located on the North end of Lake Union near Gas Works Park in the Wallingford district.
The International Electrical Testing Association (NETA), formerly the National Electrical Testing Association, is a trade association dedicated to improving electrical testing standards in the United States and sharing those standards internationally. NETA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a standards developing entity. It is guided by an active Board of Directors consisting of professionals within the electrical testing industry. The Board meets quarterly for official meetings. Board members also participate on various NETA committees, such as the Standards Review Council, Certification Exam, Membership, Finance, Association Development and Strategy, Promotions and Marketing, Nominations and Mission Based Programs.
IAPMO R&T was started in 1936 as a third-party listing agency specializing in plumbing and mechanical products. IAPMO R&T is accredited to certify products that meet the criteria of the Uniform Plumbing Code, Uniform Mechanical Code, Uniform Solar Energy Code, Uniform Swimming Pool, Spa and Hot Tub Code and other nationally recognized codes and standards in North America.
The Canadian Welding Bureau is a certification and registration organization for companies involved in the welding of steel structures. Welders in Canada are required to be retested every two years by the Canadian Welding Bureau. The CWB Group was formed in 1947 to administer the then, new W47.1 welding standard for structural steel. The CWB has today expanded its scope well beyond the original structural steel roots and is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada as a Certification Body for the administration of CSA Standards including W47.1, W47.2, W55.3, W186, W178.1 and W48 to industries across Canada and internationally for:
Accredited Crane Operator Certification OSHA regulation 29 CFR 1926 Subpart CC, released August 9, 2010, requires crane operators involved in construction to be certified by an accredited certification provider by November 10, 2014. An operator is defined as any person operating the equipment. To be accredited, certification providers must be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency, defined as "an organization that, due to its independence and expertise, is widely recognized as competent to accredit testing organizations. Examples of such accrediting agencies include, but are not limited to, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies and the American National Standards Institute." This is the first time certification by an accredited certification provider has been required on a national level, although individual states and cities have required crane operator certification as far back as 2000. The new OSHA standards make the completion of this requirement an important topic of knowledge for the crane and lifting industry.
NSF is a public health organization headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan that tests and certifies foods, water, and consumer products. It also facilitates the development of standards for these products, labeling products it has certified to meet these standards with the NSF mark.