The first meeting of the Standards Australia’s reformed Consumer Standing Forum was held in Sydney on 14 September 2011. Representatives attended from CFA, Consumer Affairs Victoria, NSW Fair Trading, QLD Office of Fair Trading, ACCC and Standards Australia. It was chaired by John Furbank from the CFA. The purpose of the CSF is to raise…
Read More Standards Australia Consumer Standing ForumA sunscreen without nano particles was recently forced to tone down its advertising claim that it was safer than alternative products which do contain nano particles. In electronic media advertising the company stated that “Unlike most sunscreens Invisible Zinc is a physical barrier between you and the sun.” Online the ads went further, saying that…
Read More Sunscreens: with or without nano particlesPersons with disabilities make up an estimated 10 per cent of the world’s population, eighty per cent of which reside in developing countries. Furthermore, a quarter of the global population is directly affected by disability, as care-givers or family members. [source: UN International day of Persons with Disabilities 2011 Introduction. See www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1561] To support this…
Read More Standards Australia Technical Committee ME-064 Access for People with a DisabilityEleanor Sumner has been the CFA representative on Standards Australia Technical Committee ME-064 Access for People with a Disability for approximately 10 years. Her work as a consumer advocate extends beyond her work with the Consumers Federation of Australia. Eleanor has had a life long commitment to women’s issues. After serving in the Women’s Royal…
Read More Introducing CFA Standards Project representative Eleanor SumnerStandards Australia has two committees working in this area which include CFA representatives. With recent controversy on claims made by a sunscreen without nano particles, the work of the committees is as important as ever. CS-042 Sunscreen Agents is currently revising AS/NZ 2604:1998 Sunscreen products: evaluation & classification with the aim to bring it more…
Read More Sunscreen and nano tech – safety and consumers’ right to know?The ISO is the International Organisation for Standardisation, a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. The work of preparing international standards is normally carried out through ISO Technical Committees. The ISO has many technical committees (TCs) and TC 229 deals with nanotechnologies, the application of scientific knowledge to manipulate and control matter in the nanoscale.…
Read More Nanotechnology and ISO
Bottles of olive oil
A new Australian Standard AS 5264 Olive oils and olive-pomace oils was published on 20 July 2011. The purpose of the Standard is to provide consumers with a clear indication of the nature and style of olive oils and olive-pomace oils they are purchasing and to prevent substitution of inferior quality olive oil or other…
Read More CFA welcomes new Olive Oil StandardStandards Australia is developing a new standard, DR AS/NZS 5377 – Collection, storage, transport and treatment of e-waste. This standard is intended to guide industry in complying with Product Stewardship legislation expected to pass through federal parliament this year. The legislation is part of the government’s National Waste Policy which aims to minimise dumping of…
Read More Proposed new standard for e-wasteStandards are published documents setting out specifications and procedures designed to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and perform the way they were intended to. They establish the common language which defines quality and safety criteria. We all rely on an objective, rigorous set of Standards to ensure the products and systems we…
Read More Standards update March 2011FT-034 Olive Oils The objective of the Olive Oil Standard is to provide industry with quality criteria and testing procedures; provide consumers with a clear indication of the nature and style of olive oil they are purchasing and to prevent substitution of inferior olive oil or other (non-olive) oils in olive oil sold in Australia. …
Read More Olive oil standard progressNew Standard EV-019 E-Waste Standards Australia is about to embark on a project to develop a new Australian Standard for the collection, storage, transport and treatment of electronic waste in Australia. CFA nominated Michael Hassett as the Consumer Federation of Australia representative for this Committees.
Read More New standard to be drafted on E-Waste