Intertek Reaches 30-Year Anniversary of NRTL Recognition
This year marks the 30th Anniversary of Intertek’s status as Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This recognition was initially obtained in 1989 by ETL Testing Laboratories, and today it is one of the most prominent recognitions/accreditations in the Intertek portfolio, applying to millions of products across multiple industries.
According to OSHA, the NRTL program enables “private sector organizations to perform certification for certain products to ensure that they meet the requirements of both the construction and general industry OSHA electrical standards.” OSHA currently recognizes 19 different organizations, with sites throughout the U.S. and Canada, as NRTLs.
Kevin Robinson, Director Office of Technical Programs and Coordination Activities at the U.S. Department of Labor, states: “Recognition by OSHA as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) indicates that the organization has demonstrated to OSHA that they have the capability, including proper testing equipment and facilities, trained staff, procedures and calibration and quality control programs to perform testing and examination of equipment for workplace safety.”
Each NRTL has its own proprietary certification mark that designates product conformity. Intertek issues its widely-recognized ETL Mark as proof of compliance to product standards. Today you can find the ETL Mark on millions of products sold across North America every day, from household appliances to light fixtures to industrial machinery to medical equipment and much more. When you see a certification mark from any of the recognized organizations (including the ETL Mark by Intertek) you can be confident that these products have been tested and determined to meet the necessary OSHA safety requirements.
During our 30 years as an NRTL, perhaps no one inside the company has been closer to the relationship between OSHA and Intertek than Paul Moliski, Vice President of Accreditation. “Intertek was one of the first to be granted NRTL status. We go through continuous on-site assessments and OSHA visits for 10-12 of our sites annually (or yearly). It is an on-going process, and every five years we file a renewal application,” says Moliski.
It’s no easy task to maintain this elite recognition by OSHA, but Intertek has successfully grown its scope of testing and certification capabilities each year into becoming one of the largest in the industry. As the company looks toward the next 30 years of being an OSHA-recognized NRTL, Moliski believes that “we must adapt to any rules and regulations changes, because there will be increased competition.”
Still, if the next 30 years prove to be anything like the first 30, Intertek will continue to be recognized as an innovator and trusted partner in product safety by regulatory agencies, inspectors, manufacturers, retailers, and the public at-large. And our ETL certification mark – the very same one created by Thomas Edison’s Electrical Testing Laboratories a century ago and bolstered by this recognition from OSHA in 1989 – will continue to be a preferred choice of electrical safety compliance for many more decades into the future.
