UL is now accredited or accepted to certify certain plumbing products by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the state of Oregon and the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition, organizations such as the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), the International Conference of Building Officials' Evaluation Services (ICBOES), the American Society of Sanitary Engineering (ASSE), the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IL EPA) and the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) accept UL test reports. The city of Los Angeles and the states of California, Iowa, Wisconsin and Massachusetts also accept UL test reports.

"UL is expanding its comprehensive services by dedicating additional resources to support the testing and certification needs of plumbing product manufacturers, including testing products that must comply with health effects requirements," says Maggie Carroll, business sector executive for plumbing products at UL.

In the plumbing industry, product standards are numerous and are typically limited in scope. Often, several standards apply to products written by different organizations addressing some specific aspect of design, such as performance, health effects or safety. UL can provide comprehensive, accredited and accepted third-party testing and certification of products to these various standards.

"At the present time, manufacturers often submit their product to multiple organizations in order to achieve widespread acceptance by code authorities, installers, specifiers and distributors, etc. Utilizing resources located at its extensive testing facilities, UL can offer a true 'one-stop shop' for plumbing manufacturers," Carroll says. "UL can provide widely accepted, accredited and comprehensive plumbing testing and certification services through one organization."

For many years, UL has tested and certified plumbing products such as whirlpool bathtubs, pumps, electric valves, equipment and devices connected to a water supply such as carbonators, beverage dispensers, boilers and water heaters, and fire protection devices and components such as valves, sprinkler pipes and fittings. UL has also tested faucets, various other fixture fittings, valves, pipe and pipe fittings, and resins for health effects under ANSI/NSF Standard 61. UL also tests direct additive products to ANSI/NSF Standard 60. In fact, UL has tested and listed plumbing products such as water softeners and demineralizers for electrical safety since the 1920s.

Plumbing appliance manufacturers know the value of UL certification because UL already provides them with the most widely sought and accepted fire, shock and mechanical hazard certification services. Now these manufacturers and those who make pipes, fixtures and fixture fittings can work with UL to satisfy their additional performance, design and health effects testing and certification needs.

For more information about UL's plumbing products services and the scope of UL's various accreditations and acceptances for plumbing, contact Maggie Carroll at 408-984-2400, ext. 32131, or by e-mail at carrollm@ul.com.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is an independent, not-for-profit product safety testing, certification and quality system registration organization that has evaluated products, materials and systems in the interest of public safety for more than a century.

More than 14 billion products bearing the UL mark enter the marketplace every year. UL, its affiliates, subsidiaries and branch offices are capable of providing manufacturers with product certification and system registrations for all of North America through UL's five full-service testing, conformity assessment and trade facilitation centers in the United States.