Still a Need to Clear the Language Between U.S. and Canandian Codes

By Ron George, CIPE, CPD, President, Ron George Design & Consulting Services, Newport, Mich. -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 6/1/2005

Editor's Note: To wrap up Ron George's analysis of recent changes to the International Plumbing Code, we're including a letter we received regarding Mr. George's analysis and his response. The letter is from Lynne Simnick, senior technical staff, ICC Codes & Standards Development.

I read your article U.S. and Canadian Plumbing Code Snafu: A Need to Speak, and your perspective on the [International Codes Council] staff analysis is incorrectly stated. A direct quote from Abraham Murra at CSA [Canadian Standards Assn.] states, "Products manufactured in accordance with CSA standard are only meant to be used with products 'referenced' in the CSA standards and are not meant to be commingled with products manufactured in accordance with other standards."

Every code change submitted by Mr. Murra contains this quote. This is exactly what the staff analysis states in the code changes that were to delete or add CSA standards. Canadian standards were "not" developed only for Canadian products as you stated. ICC recognizes all standard writing organizations and is designed to be used as an International Code, including Canada.

The quote referring to the ICC staff comment was misstated. The bottom line is that the standards are different and the code committee seemed to feel adding this standard would add confusion for inspectors if there are two different products installed in a system and both are listed as approved in the code. The staff comment clearly indicates the products manufactured to the two standards should not be commingled. The problem is the ICC staff analysis or wording stating that the products manufactured to the two standards should not be commingled would not be part of the code language, because it was a staff comment and not part of the proposed language in the code change. If there is not some language printed in the code book stating that products meeting the two standards cannot be commingled in the same system, then inspectors have no choice but to approve the installation if both standards are listed in the code. I feel that until this is addressed there will be a real concern with approving two standards with different dimensions and performance characteristics.