ZyXEL Communications PLA-470 V2 - V3.0.5 Installationsanleitung PDF herunterladen (Seite 23)

For European countries, this is a fundamental level since the international stan-

dards, the specifications of which will be used as a reference for CE marking, are

written in the European standardization committees.

For a better understanding of the mechanisms for the implementation of inter-

national standards in a broad sense, this European standardization organization

should be compared with the existing organization in the United-States.

Citing the “Overview of the U.S. Standardization System” (ANSI, Second Edi-

tion, July 2007), the United States is very different from other countries of the world,

where usually one organization is designated as the major standards developer and

that organization is closely tied to, if not a part of, the government. There are many

organizations that comprise the U.S. standardization system, including both govern-

ment and non-government organizations.

In the United States, there are essentially two broad categories of standards with

regard to regulation—mandatory and voluntary. Mandatory standards are set by the

government and can be either procurement or regulatory standards. A procurement

standard sets out the requirements that must be met by government suppliers; regulatory

standards may set health, safety, environmental, or other criteria.

VOLUNTARY STANDARDS—In the United States, the voluntary standards

development system is called voluntary for two reasons. First, participation in the

system is voluntary. Second, the standards produced are usually intended for volun-

tary use. Voluntary consensus standards are developed through the participation of

all interested stakeholders, including producers, users, consumers, and representa-

tives of government and academia.

In the United States, the distinction between voluntary and mandatory stan-

dards is not clear cut. Often, government standards developers refer in their regula-

tions to privately developed standards, and in that reference give the standard the

force of federal support. Building codes, for example, reference hundreds of stan-

dards developed by voluntary standards organizations. Since building codes are the

province of government, the referenced standards have the force of law and must be

adhered to by regulatory agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, the

Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration. The

Department of Housing and Urban Development also references hundreds, if not

thousands, of voluntary consensus standards in lieu of developing its own docu-

ments. These too, have the force of law once they are referenced in a government

regulation. In the wake of the U.S. National Technology Transfer and Advancement

Act (Public Law 104-113), which requires government agencies to use privately

developed standards whenever it is at all possible, this practice is on the increase,

saving taxpayers millions of dollars previously incurred by duplicating efforts in

standards development.

What Kinds of Standards Are There?

There are at least four kinds of standards, based on the degree of consensus needed

for their development and use, based on “The Handbook of Standardization”

(ASTM, April 2006):

4 Introduction

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