NCCF’s Certification Advisory Group approves the Provisional Approval Scheme for Certification Bodies for Safeboards Standards and Certification Scheme in its meeting held online on Thursday, 27th of January 2022
27th January 2022| NCCF’s Certification Advisory Group (CAG) ’s meeting was held online under the chairmanship of Mr Anil Jauhri, Chairperson, CAG (ex-CEO, NABCB) to consider and approve the NCCF’s Provisional Approval Scheme for Certification Bodies for Safeboards Standards and Certification Scheme.
NCCF has developed the Safeboards Standards and Certification Scheme through a multi-stakeholder Standard Development Group constituted under the Chairpersonship of Mr. A. K Goyal, IFS (Retd.), Ex-Special Secretary to the Government of India. This scheme is focused on technical criteria and safe levels of toxic emissions of formaldehyde from composite wood products; plywood, block boards, particle boards, MDF, to improve indoor air quality and address health aspects, and also to promote exports of wooden furniture, handicraft items, wooden toys and cutleries etc. This scheme aims to have uniform technical regulations using appropriate standards across the manufacturing units for manufacture of safe products intended to be sold in export and domestic markets.
A panel of experts including: Shri Avani K. Varma, Chairman, NCCF | Mr Anil Jauhri, Chairperson, Certification Advisory Group, NCCF (ex-CEO, NABCB) | Shri A. K. Srivastava, Director General, NCCF | Shri A. K. Bansal, Chairperson, PCA and NWFRs | Shri A. K. Goyal, IFS (retd), SDG Chairperson of NCCF’s Standards and Certification Scheme: “Safeboards” |Mr Rajesh Maheshwari, Chief Executive Officer, National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB)| Ms Mallika Gope, Director, NABL; representing Mr N. Venkateswaran, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) | Dr Aparna Dhawan, Executive Director India Region, TIC Council India | Dr Kaushik Sengupta, Bureau Veritas | Ms Neeti Verma and Ms Karishma Khutela, Technical Experts,Safeboards Scheme and Dr Indu Dwivedi, Assistant Director, NCCF, among others attended the meeting.
Shri A. K. Goyal, Chairperson, SDG, Safeboards Standards, welcomed Chairperson and Members of CAG and Special Inviteesto the meeting. He mentioned that Safeboards Standards and Certification Scheme were approved by the NCCFs’ Governing Body in its 19th meeting held on 26th November, 2021 for its launch, adoption and use by its stakeholders. He stressed how NCCFs’ initiative to develop Safeboards, an indigenous scheme, identical to CARB, will greatly increase the production and usage of composite boards and make them safe and reliable within India and internationally.
Ms Neeti Verma, Technical Expert, Safeboards Standards made a comprehensive presentation on various components of the Standards and explained how it is based on international best practices, covering various issues related to formaldehyde emissions, the benefits of certification of composite wood and potential of NCCF’s Safeboards Standards for wood based industries.
Dr Indu Dwivedi, Assistant Director, NCCF, gave an insightful presentation on the Provisional Approval Scheme for CBs which intend to be accredited under SBCS schemes, and explained the administrative and technical requirements for the CBs and qualification of the auditors of CBs etc.
Mr Anil Jauhri, Chairperson, CAG, suggested the following:
Firstly, The requirements for personnel involved should be having education in field/discipline relevant to the scheme, should have completed auditor training which is ISO 19011 based (and auditor training conducted by NCCF). Other requirements include knowledge on NCCF Safeboards Certification Scheme, 2 years experience minimum including 1 year in relevant industry, 10 mandays of audit, consulting of 3 clients relating to quality, auditing experience of 2 audits in certification scheme as trainee auditor under supervision of qualified auditor, auditing experience of 2 years on California Air Resources Board / Toxic Substances Control Act / Bureau of Indian Standards or any other emission based certification schemes for composite wood industry or any other indoor air quality related certification scheme.|
Secondly, the Draft Accreditation Requirements of Safeboards Standards and Certification Scheme (SBCS): Certification Bodies (CBs) and Testing Laboratories, should be kept as two separate document files. Namely as; Accreditation requirements for CBs, and SBCS standard and Certification process for easy access and facilitation to the industries.
Shri A. K. Bansal, Chairperson, PCA and NWFRs, advised to maintain the uniformity of the certificate validity with the other NCCF schemes, he mentioned the need to extend the validity of the certificate from 3 years to 5 years.
Shri A. K. Srivastava, Director General, NCCF, in his closing remarks, thanked all the members for joining the meeting. He particularly acknowledged the participation of Mr Avani Varma, Chairman,NCCF and the invited guests, Mr Rajesh Maheshwari, CEO, NABCB, Ms Mallika Gope, Director, NABL, Dr Aparna Dhawan, Dr Kaushik Sengupta in the meeting. He appreciated the valuable contribution of Safeboards Technical Team in developing the scheme and related documents and efforts made by NCCF Team in making the event a success.