ANSI Z90.4 Committee
ANSI Z90.4 Meets twice to close three year gap!
April meeting--the first in three years
The ANSI Z90.4 bicycle helmet standard committee met on April 13, 1995,
for the first time since 1992. The group was faced with an expired standard
(Z90.4-1984) and the need to update. Attendance was sparse. There were three
Snell Memorial Foundation participants: Chan Ewing, Ed Becker and Bill
Chilcott. (Snell chairs the ANSI committee.) Dean Fisher came from Bell,
JJ Liu from the Department of Transportation (NHTSA), Scott Heh from Consumer
Product Safety Commission and Randy Swart from the Bicycle Helmet Safety
Institute. In the afternoon the group was joined by Karen Moran, an injury prevention
professional.
The group spent the morning thrashing out possibilities for quick updating
of the ANSI standard. This is highly desirable because many State and local
laws specify ANSI as an officially-recognized standard, but the current ANSI
standard was approved in 1984 and is easily surpassed by even the cheapest
helmets. The real minimal standard in the marketplace is now the ASTM
standard, and there is no excuse for a helmet not meeting it.
CPSC is now authorized as of March 16 to require that bicycle helmets
meet one of the voluntary standards, including ANSI and Snell, as an interim
measure before publishing its own federal government standard, probably in
1997. But meantime Congress is threatening to declare a moratorium on new
government regulations, and even the current CPSC authority to enforce the
interim standards could go away.
Some ANSI committee members were in favor of adopting the ASTM standard, but
when the committee called ANSI to ask about the mechanics of doing that the answer was
less than encouraging. It could possibly be done, slowly, with ASTM staff
concurrance. The committee chair (Ewing) agreed to look into it. In the meantime
the group turned to a draft standard prepared by Ed Becker of Snell. It
took the 1992 ANSI draft and added elements of Snell's B-90 standard
(mostly the test line/required coverage). The committee spent the afternoon editing
the draft, attempting to harmonize it with the ASTM standard.You can also follow this
link to see Ed Becker's official minutes of the
meeting, and a letter to ANSI members describing it.
May meeting -- ASTM standard adopted
The ANSI group met again in Denver on May 17, 1995. This time the
meeting was scheduled during the ASTM meeting week, and had more members
in attendance (perhaps 20). The group was informed that on May 8th ANSI
accredited ASTM as an offically-recognized body capable of developing
ANSI standards. This made it possible for the Z90.4 committee to adopt the
ASTM F-1446 and F-1447 standards as the ANSI Z90.4 standard. The
committee voted unanimously to do that, clearing the way for
harmonization of the two standards. Both institutions move slowly, but
the final adoption by ANSI of the ASTM standard should take place in six
months to a year. Follow this link to see the draft
minutes of the meeting.
After a delay of nearly ten years, during which ANSI disbanded the Z90 Committee, ANSI did adopt the ASTM F-1447 bicycle helmet standard as its own.
Last modified: June 23, 2011
