Hurry up and wait
06/01/2001
Kelly Sewell
PHOENIX, AZ—What is the status of Fed-Std-209E? If you were an attendee at the IEST's Annual Technical Meeting, ESTECH 2001, at the end of April, you likely heard the question come up in working group meetings, technical sessions and informal conversation—but you didn't walk away with an answer.
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Dixon: Delay slows progess for U.S.
At the contamination control plenary session, Robert Mielke, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology's (IEST) contamination control vice president, took a stab at the question by explaining that, as a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) document, the government has a right to continue it.
Working Group 100 recommended in May 2000 that the GSA not maintain it. However, part of the delay has been that GSA was waiting for 14644-1 and -2 to be published so they could send it with the letter to organizations with an interest in 209E.
Those organizations have 60 days to respond, and the process could take even longer if any of them object.
While IEST has responsibility for 209E, it is a GSA document, and therefore, the GSA is the body to make the final decision on its status.
According to Bruce Geren, technical writer/editor at GSA, "I'm in the process of getting it ready for coordination within the military community for cancellation."
In early May, Geren told CleanRooms he'd get to the letter as soon as he finished some other projects, possibly in a month.
Not a priority
"I've got other projects going on, so this is a low priority," he says.
Once the coordination letter is sent, which he's hoping to do by e-mail, he would wait 60 days to see if any members object to the cancellation of Fed-Std-209. "This document is referenced in state requirements and codes used around the world. So I don't know if it will be easy to cancel it or difficult to cancel it."
"IEST wrote to [Geren] a year ago this month," explains Anne Marie Dixon, managing partner of Cleanroom Management Associates in Carson City, NV, and head of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC 209 and head of the U.S. delegation to ISO Technical Committee 209 on "Cleanroom and Associated Controlled Environments."
"I know the U.S. has many other issues of greater importance, however, from a world standards perspective—this delay is slowing progress for our U.S. companies," she says.
"As leaders in the field of cleanrooms, we as a country have become the focus of 'jokes' in the international community as the country that leads but can't make changes!"