On behalf of the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies Reinier Hoftijzer atteneded the CEN PPE Sector forum held in Brussels at 16th of February 2016 and CEN TC/122 WG 14 PPE and Ergonomics meetings in Zoetermeer (NL) last year, and on 21 and 22 of March in Brussels.
Ergonomics, safety and comfort are the three main considerations when designing new Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). PPE mean all the PPE may be worn for Occupational Health and Safety purposes, as well as sports or other recreational activities.
The PPE Sector Forum coordinates European standardization in the PPE field. At the meeting there were 20 persons attending from PPE Industry, PPE testing organization, National Standardization Bodies, CEN and the European Commission (DG Grow and DG Social Affairs and Employment). The role of FEES is to represent the ergonomic aspect of the design and the use of PPE.
The new PPE regulation in replacing the directive 89/686 was approved by the European Parliament on 20th January of 2016. The Council of the European Union adopted, on 12 February 2016, the comprise text on the proposal for Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on personal protective equipment and repealing Directive 1989/686/EEC. The next steps should be the signature of the text by the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the President of the European Parliament. After approval in March there will be a transition period of two years.