June 15, 2009 In CDC's and HUD's supporting guidance for builders and homeowners, ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2007, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings was recommended as effective way to minimize indoor air pollution through ventilation. Citation of standard by Surgeon General, said Andy Persily, highlights its relevance to national need for safe and healthy housing. Standard applies to spaces intended for human occupancy and structures 3 stories or less.

June 15, 2009 AASHTO Center for Excellence in Project Finance has launched website to help state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, and others find potential sources of revenue. Website is designed to identify set of funding and financing mechanisms that can be used to generate investment for transportation projects. Established in 2005, Center for Excellence provides transportation funding and financing tools, research services, technical assistance, and professional education programs.

June 15, 2009 Mayor David Bing has proclaimed the week of June 15, 2009 "Environmental Week" in the City of Detroit. A&WMA's Annual Conference and Exhibition, sponsored by GM, will be held June 16-19, with technical program featuring over 500 speakers covering wide range of environmental topics. Also, Detroit Economic Club will hold National Summit from June 15-17, focusing on competitive future of American economy and featuring discussion on technology, energy, environment, and manufacturing.

June 12, 2009 NACD and ACC signed Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in promotion and performance of NACD's Responsible Distribution Process^SM and ACC's Responsible Care® program. Objective of agreement is to encourage continued communication/support between member manufacturers and distributors of both organizations. While each represents a different component of same supply chain, EHS&S initiatives are complementary to each other and help ensure chemical products are protected to downstream users.

June 12, 2009 According to ATA President and CEO, James C. May, ATA fully supports Department of Transportation's Call to Action to address airline safety and pilot training, and commends Secretary LaHood and Administrator Babbitt on taking this important step. ATA was a major partner in Runway Safety Call to Action held by FAA two years ago, and looks forward to being equally engaged with FAA and other industry partners in this important work as well.

June 12, 2009 Industries committed to development of skilled workforce and keeping America's manufacturing sector strong have given $318,000 in sponsorship grants to SME Education Foundation. Funding will makes it possible for secondary-school students to attend Foundation's Gateway Academies, which are summer camps where students explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

June 12, 2009 Part of ASTM International Committee F08 on Sports Equipment and Facilities, Subcommittee F08.57 is working on developing standard for motorcycle/moped/snowmobile goggles and revising existing standard for skier goggles. WK23632, Specification for Goggle- and Spectacle-Type Eye Protectors for Selected Motor Sports, will be used by off-road motorcycle/all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and consumers.

June 12, 2009 Using ASTM International standard D7504, Test Method for Trace Impurities in Monocyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons by Gas Chromatography and Effective Carbon Number, manufacturers can determine both trace impurities as well as purity of tolulene, mixed xylenes, and p-xylene. Standard is suited for use as aromatic process control, final product quality control, and commodity inspection.

June 12, 2009 Developed by Subcommittee G01.11, G199 Standard provides procedure for making electrochemical noise measurements for detection of general and localized forms of corrosion. It also offers number of methods for analyzing resulting data. G199 is primarily geared toward laboratory-based users with interest in localized corrosion, although it could also be applied to some in-service applications, depending on certified hazardous area classification of equipment used.

June 12, 2009 ASTM Subcommittee D01.44 on Traffic Coatings is working on proposed standard ASTM WK22312, Practice for Drum and Tote Sampling of Waterborne Traffic Paint, which addresses laboratory sampling issues. It also is working on ASTM WK23758, Test Method for Measuring Gradation of Glass Beads Using a Flowing Stream Digital Image Analyzer. Assisting manufacturers with production/quality control of glass beads, ASTM WK23758 will also allow end users of glass beads to determine conformance to standard.

June 12, 2009 Toy Industry Association has announced appointment of Oversight Council for Toy Safety Certification Program, an initiative organized by TIA in partnership with ANSI. Council will be responsible for monitoring overall development, implementation, and effectiveness of TSCP; proposing changes to program to increase value to stakeholders; and reviewing and adopting reasonable recommendations related to technical considerations and changes in marketplace.

June 12, 2009 Scheduled for June 12, 2009, ANSI Caucus luncheon will feature guest speaker Patrick Gallagher, Ph.D., deputy director of NIST. Prior to appointment as deputy director, Dr. Gallagher was director of NIST Center for Neutron Research, which provides thermal and cold neutron measurement capabilities to U.S. research community. In 2000, Dr. Gallagher was NIST agency representative at National Science and Technology Council, and is an active contributor to U.S. policy for scientific user facilities.

June 12, 2009 During visit to U.S., Madhulika Prakash, deputy director general for Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), met with S. Joe Bhatia, ANSI President and CEO, and other ANSI staff to discuss areas of cooperation between ANSI and BIS. As peer national standards bodies, partnership between ANSI and BIS has continued to grow since initial signing of MoU in 2006. In 2007, ANSI and BIS demonstrated further commitment to public-private partnerships by signing tri-partite MoU between ANSI, BIS, and CII.

June 12, 2009 Standards Institution of Israel has submitted proposal to ISO for standard on treated wastewater reuse implementations. As U.S. member body to ISO, ANSI invites interested stakeholders to submit comments by July 24. Proposed standard will cover requirements and processes involved in healthy, environmentally viable, and sustainable reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture, landscape, and industry. It will also offer guidelines for design, construction, operation, and maintenance of such systems.

June 12, 2009 Federation of Canadian Municipalities passed resolution giving U.S. government 120 days to broker fair trade deal or face consequences of U.S. companies being restricted from bidding on Canadian infrastructure projects. David Angelo, Chairman of WWEMA, had previously sent letter to Congress and White House warning of risks associated with employing protectionist measures in stimulus bill. In 2008, the United States exported $6.18 billion in water and wastewater equipment and piping to Canada.

June 12, 2009 Written by Michael J. Termini, SME book titled "Concept to Customer: Portfolio, Pipeline, and Strategic Project Management," provides thorough explanations of portfolio and pipeline management techniques, project planning tools, risk management tools, contingency planning, and tradeoff analyses and leadership techniques. Book also offers insights into project teams, mistakes made by project managers and teams, preparing effective project proposal, and aligning expectations with team's ability.

June 12, 2009 BIO has asked EPA to maintain flexibility to adjust and update Renewable Fuel Standard regulations and life cycle assessment of biofuels as science matures. According to Brent Erickson, EVP of BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section, deployment of advanced technologies depends critically on continued growth and evolution of first-generation biofuels, and on fair, consistent, flexible, and reliable regulatory support from federal government.

June 12, 2009 Titled "Selecting Metalcasting Processes and Alloys for Optimum Component Design and Production," AFS white paper describes characteristics and benefits of main molding processes, including sand casting, permanent mold, diecasting, investment, ceramic, and rapid prototyping. It also covers properties of principal metalcasting alloy families, including iron, steel, aluminum, copper, magnesium, and zinc. Casting Process Matrix provides summary of alloys that can be used with each process.

June 12, 2009 Nominations for 2010 ANSI Board of Directors are due June 12, 2009, and are for candidates to serve terms beginning Jan 1, 2010. Nominations require biographical statement and letter of corporate support, however, letter of corporate support is not required for corporate officers or for individual and government members. Candidates will be reviewed by Board Nominating Committee, and nominations by that Committee will subsequently be balloted for election by ANSI membership.

June 12, 2009 CoreMark(TM) v1.0 provides starting point for measuring core performance and basic pipeline structure of processors from 8-bit MCUs to high-end 32-bit devices and architectures. Workload contains algorithms that deliver realistic mixture of read/write operations, integer operations, and control operations. Specific algorithms include matrix manipulation, linked-list manipulation, state machine operation, and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC).