The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) has established a new Australian business unit, IAPMO R&T Oceana, in Melbourne in response to increased demand for product evaluation services from plumbing and mechanical product manufacturers in the Australian and New Zealand markets. This is the first time IAPMO R&T and The IAPMO Group will be evaluating plumbing and mechanical products for markets outside of North America, according to GP Russ Chaney, executive director of The IAPMO Group. He noted that the requirements in Australian and New Zealand standards are similar to U.S. and Canadian standards.

In other news, IAPMO announced that the state of Hawaii has adopted the 2006 Uniform Plumbing Code as its first statewide plumbing code. For more information, see the full story at Hawaii Adopts UPC as First Statewide Plumbing Code in our Latest News section.