by Linda Straker
- Draft document opened for public comment from 29 April 2024
- Draft standard applies to Portland and blended cement
- General public has until 31 July 2024 to submit comments
The Grenada Bureau of Standards is revising the current mandatory standard for cement. As part of the process the general public has until 31 July 2024 to submit comments about the standard which was prepared for the Standard Council under the supervision of the construction technical committee.
“This standard is intended for use by manufacturers, importers and distributors of cement,” said the draft document which opened for public comment from 29 April 2024 and published as a public notice in the 16 May edition of the Government Gazette.
“This draft standard specifies requirements for Hydraulic cement used primarily in the construction industry. It includes requirements for procurement, sampling, storage, compressive strength, physical properties, chemical properties, packages, labelling and the means of determining conformance of these requirements.” The draft standard is a modified adoption of Caricom Regional Standard CRS 54: 2014
In the draft standard, cement is defined as a material which has adhesive and cohesive properties necessary to bond insert aggregates into a solid mass of adequate strength and durability with time. Hydraulic cement is defined as cement that sets and hardens by chemical reaction with water and that is capable of doing so under water.
“This draft standard applies to Portland and blended cement. This draft standard does not apply to ASTM C150M type IV cement,” the document instructs, under packaging and labelling. Once the standard goes into effect it will be mandatory for the label to truthfully indicate the type and nature of the cement so that customers will not be misled.
“For all new blended and new cement products a new sample should be sent to the importing country for testing a minimum of 2 weeks prior to importing shipment.” The standard mandates that if the cement is new the label should also be checked and the customer be notified of the change.