American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and UL Standards & Engagement have published a draft whitepaper, "Principles for Measuring the Impact of Voluntary Consensus Standards on Human Health and Safety."  The groups are seeking public comments by June 15.

"The whitepaper seeks to illustrate the value of work done by the standardization community and provide insights on how to measure and articulate impact," the groups explain. "It was developed with the assistance of staff of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, additional working group members from other U.S. federal government agencies, standards-developing organizations and other interested parties."

The document discusses the goals of different stakeholders and approaches to measuring the impact of standards. It also examines frameworks for conducting an impact assessment, including the different types of standards, and the importance of the voluntary standards adoption process. Finally, it reviews how to collect and select data for measuring outcomes, and the relationship between the effectiveness of a standard and conformance to the standard in achieving impact.

In addition to downloading the 45-page report, please access these materials to submit your comments:

• Instructions for Using Comment Form (pdf file)
• Comment Form (required) (Excel file). When accessing the comment form, you may be prompted for credentials; just hit “Cancel” one or more times to download and open the document.

Please submit comments to ANSI's Jim McCabe by June 15. The working group expects to finalize the document for publication by the end of July 2023.