About NSF Standards

NSF follows American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Standards Council of Canada (SCC) standards development processes. Standards are developed by joint committees (balanced stakeholder groups of public health, industry and user representatives).

NSF Public Health Council

The NSF Public Health Council (PHC) serves as the independent, public health ratification step at the end of the process and provides final review and acceptance. PHC members chair the joint committees to provide liaison between the council and joint committees.

Role of PHC

PHC 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 programmes in health, technology and environmental health safeguards. PHC membership includes only representatives from government/regulatory, academia, public health and public service; there is no industry representation.

Role of Health Advisory Board

The Health Advisory Board (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/CAN Standards 60 and 61. Membership includes representatives from the EPA, Health Canada and the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Purchasing NSF Standards

NSF standards and publications are available for purchase from the NSF Bookstore.

Visit the Standards Store