Product Approval Process

MCAA has been working to make the current product approval process more efficient where Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTLs) are overseen by OSHA to test and certify most of the products made by MCAA members. We support the ongoing work to harmonize US standards to the IEC Ex Scheme for Hazardous Location (HazLoc) equipment which would mitigate many of the issues that we see with regard to conflicting standards and also may provide a "standard mark" where "IEC Ex Compliant" might be what customers would look for. We requested OSHA to change its internal policies to specify annual facility audits following certification rather than audits up to 4 times per year for HazLoc equipment where ISO quality plans are in place. They rejected our request noting that NRTLs are permitted to reduce the frequency of the audits on their own (where compliance is shown) and that a policy change might allow non-compliant products into the marketplace. MCAA's Board of Directors has authorized the raising of funds to being a grass roots lobbying campaign to raise the awareness of Congress and other agencies to the issues we find in this broken NRTL system. We want to identify our allies and opponents, talk with Congressional offices, engage OSHA in more meaningful discussions with more weight of evidence and opinion on our side, and educate customers about the NRTL program.