Official Standards Organizations

In spite of their authority and international prestige, these institutes are not the official standards organizations, and participation in their work is restricted to those who have paid the membership fees. 

In Europe, the CEC (Coordinating European Council for the development of performance tests for lubricants and engine fuels) federalizes the GEC and its counterparts in other European countries. 

The accreditation of a standard is an official act (signed by the Ministry of Industry in France). To prepare standards, governments have mandated private organizations which are responsible for continuously following the rules to reach a mciximum consensus. There is only one such organization per country. They are, moreover, grouped at the European and international levels. 

At the international level, the official organization is the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and its counterpart for the electrical industries, the lEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). 

At the European level, the national organizations from both the EU (European Union, formerly the EEC) and the EETA (European Free Trade Association) are grouped in the CEN (European Committee for Standardization) and its counterpart for the electrical industries CENELEC. The standards published by these two organizations have authority in all EU countries as well as the EFTA countries who have voted their approval, which means that these standards have replaced their corresponding national standards. 

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Moreover, it is useful to distinguish between the standards prepared by the official standards organizations and the professional standards. The former s mission is to ensure that the conditions of the consensus of the widest assemblage of interested parties are followed. The professional standards are prepared by recognized professional organizations but limit the consensus to only the participating organizations. 

Among the official standards organizations are in France, AFNOR (Association Frangaise de Normalisation)-, in the United Kingdom, BSI (British... 

In the same way that standards either can be limited to a consensus between professionals or they can be official, the standards organizations can be either professional or official. 

Moreover, national and international laws and directives, such as International Standard Organization (ISO) documents and HACCP instructions, help to increase the use of BL techniques and kits as official method of analyses. 

All of the environmentally-controlled areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing and its related areas should meet the requirement of air cleanliness, which is expressed as classifications specified by official standards, such as ISO (International Organization of Standardization) or FED-STD (U.S. federal standard) 209, and/or GMP. The classification has a close relationship with the air treatment procedures and construction features. 

Standard methods for measuring the refractive index of oils and fats are published by IUPAC (standard method 2.102, Paquot Hautfenne, 1987), the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS Official Method Cc 7-25, Firestone, 1998) and the International Standards Organization (International Standard 1739-1975 (E), ISO, 1975). The last specifically applies to the measurement of the refractive index of the fat from butter, and was developed jointly with the International Dairy Federation and the American Oil Chemists Society. 

The task groups write standards in the format prescribed by the standards organization. At this stage the technical content of the standard is determined, and competent performance can avoid trouble later. No official ballot is used at the task-group level in ASTM, but the consensus procedure still is active. 

Routine monitoring measurements often rely on standard methods adopted by official national or international standardization organizations (e.g. ISO, CEN). Written... 

Interest in international pharmacopoeial standards was taken up by the World Health Organization s International Pharmacopoeia of 19S2 and its subsequent revisions. This differs from national pharmacopoeias in that it has no legal authority. Within the beginnings of the development of what is now the European Community, a European Pharmacopoeia) Convention was signed in 1964, by whose terms the signatories undertook to make the standards of the European Pharmacopoeia (EP) the official standards of their countries. The majority of countries in western Europe are now signatories. 

The first step in the development of a standard begins with the European Commission mandating that a standards organization draft a standard. Next, a closing date is established, and within this time period all interested parties may comment. After approval, the standard will be published as an harmonized standard in the Official Journal, and then it is transposed into national standards by the member states. A standards implementation example would be ... 

Officials and organizations. Establish official(s) and an organization responsible for security and for compliance with these standards. 

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