Governance

ICS governs how a contaminant certification standard is set, kept independent, and enforced. This page describes the institution's rules. The standards themselves — the limits, the methodology, the per-subcategory values — are published by each program on its own site.

Independence and the firewall

Every program has two separate faces: an independent index that reports the complete scientific literature, and a certification standard applied to that evidence. The two are kept apart by a hard data-class rule. The index never publishes a certification threshold and never endorses the certifier; the certifier cites the index one way. Common ownership does not compromise independence — a firewall breach would, and the firewall is enforced in code, not in an org chart.

How standards are set

A standard is set per analyte, per product subcategory, in the product's native basis, against the occurrence distribution in the literature, and capped by the lowest applicable regulatory ceiling. The program states honestly where its limit sits relative to that evidence. Standards are living, versioned, dated documents; each edition supersedes the last at a stable address so prior citations resolve. The methodology is published in full on each program site.

Mark use

The mark certifies that a product was tested to a stated standard, in a stated basis, on a stated analyte panel, with the covered and uncovered analytes disclosed alongside it. It is not a claim that a product is "safe." Mark-use rules, including which analytes a certificate covers, travel with every certificate and are verifiable by number.

Enforcement

Certifications are live relationships. A mark can be suspended or withdrawn; verification reflects the current state at the moment it is checked. Public enforcement notices are published as regulatory events, named only where already a matter of public record.

Current program: Heavy Metal Tested & Certified (standard version and effective dates are published on the program's standards index).