Category: PPE standardisation

CEN PPE Sector forum and TC meetings

Gyula Szabó

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.

Report on PPE Working group meeting April 2015.

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EU

The Federation of European
Ergonomics Societies was represented at the Directive 89/686/EEC
Working group meeting in Brussels, 21 April 2015, by Reinier
Hoftijzer as member of the S&G working group.

EU

The Federation of European
Ergonomics Societies was represented at the Directive 89/686/EEC
Working group meeting in Brussels, 21 April 2015, by Reinier
Hoftijzer as member of the S&G working group.

To represent ergonomics in European
level is extremely important because the existing PPE Directive will
be replaced by a European PPE regulation. Besides up to date changes
in the legislation it also means that this new regulation has not to
be transformed into national legislation of the European Member
States. By the end of 2014 there was a common Council position. The
final voting in the European Parliament will very soon. It is
expected that the final decision between EU/Commission/Parliament and
final version agreement will be available before summer 2015. There
will be a transition period of at three years (2018).

The Federation of European
Ergonomics Societies can give opinion regarding the part of the
guidelines concerning Ergonomics. All decisions regarding the new
guidelines have to be taken before the end of 2015.

On behalf of CEN there was also
announced that there will a new proposal for a horizontal TC
(Technical Committee) of CEN and CENELEC under Dutch secretariat
(NNI) about horizontal subjects regarding “Personal Protective
Ensembles and Systems” (also Ergonomics). Also under CEN TC 122
Ergonomics at the meeting in Prague (4 and 5 May) was a decision on a
new WG (Working group) “Ergonomics design and evaluation of
integrated PPE systems”, also under Dutch secretariat (NNI) and
Dutch convenor.

The next meeting will be on 17 November
2015.

Ergonomics in EU standardisation Update 2015 Summer

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On behalf of the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies Reinier Hoftijzer attended the CEN/TC 122 Ergonomics meeting 4 and 5 May 2015 in Prague.
CEN

There were short reports by the convenor of the several working groups (WG). These were:

  • WG 2 Ergonomic design principles by G. Kramer
  • WG 4 Biomechanics by A. Ringelberg
  • WG 5 Ergonomics of human-system interaction by T. Stewart
  • WG 11 Ergonomics of the physical environment by K. Parsons

There were short reports of the partners of the TC. These partners are ISO/TC 159 Ergonomics, CEN/TC 114 Safety of Machinery, ETUI, ANEC and FEES. FEES is also seen as a partner and will be invited for the TC 122 meetings.

After a short presentation of Henk Vanhoutte a decision was taken over the establishment of a new WG on “Ergonomics design and evaluation of integrated PPE systems”. NNI will take care of the secretariat and the new convenor will be Ronald Heus (IFV, Institute of Physical Safety) of the Netherlands.

As follow up BT/WG 8 Henk Vanhoutte presented a proposal for a new combined TC on “Personal Protective Ensembles and Systems” to be decided by CEN and CENELEC.

This was the last meeting for Georg Kramer as chairman of this TC and at
the of the meeting Peter Frener was appointed without any objections.

The next meeting of CEN/TC 122 Ergonomics will probably take place in London in October 2016.

Memorandum of Understanding with European Safety Federation (ESF)

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ESF

Guiro Van Duren and Sylvain Leduc signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 18th November 2014.

European Safety Federation (ESF) and the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies (FEES) agree on common goals that are:

  • To promote the ergonomic design and use of PPE,
  • To contribute to the feedback from the field on the quality and the real use of PPE,
  • To promote the training of different actors in this field,
  • To include a mutual link on the websites with a short description of the objectives of the partner,
  • To promote activities organised by the partner through their information channels.

Short report meeting about EU directive 89/686/EEC “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)” Working Group (WG) PPE in Brussels, 11th November 2013

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This meeting was chaired by the
European Commission (DG Enterprise and Industry).

This meeting was chaired by the
European Commission (DG Enterprise and Industry).

On behalf of the Federation of the European Ergonomics Societies Reinier
Hoftijzer attended “EU directive 89/686/EEC “Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE)” Working Group (WG)” working Group (WG). The members of this WG are
experts of national authorities (member states) and representatives of European
standardisation organisations (CEN and Cenelec). Also representatives of branch
organisations (ESF and FEES) and testing institutes are member of this
WG.

As example for this discussion at
this meeting concerns personal fall protection. In particular is an anchor
device, which is an essential part of the PPE, a part of this PPE or is it a
construction part of a building, where this fall protection is used. The
European Directive (89/686) and the European standard (EN 795:2012) are not
clear in this point. Consequently also in the Member States this is treated
different. Most representatives are in favour of a proposal of ESF (European
Safety Federation) that anchor device is a part of personal fall protection
equipment. In the next meeting of this WG the European Commission will give its
opinion on this point.

Another important point on the
agenda was the revision of the PPE directive 89/686/EEC. The impact assessment
report was finished and approved by the European Commission. The new proposal
will be published in December 2013 and it will be a regulation on PPE and not a
new directive. A regulation has a lot of advantages over a directive for the
Member States and the European Commission. The major difference between a
regulation and a directive is that the regulation has no transposition time and
becomes, after adapting by Council and Parliament, straight away national
legislation. So the member states do not have to transpose this European
legislation. The proposal for a regulation on PPE will be put forward to the
Council and the European Parliament. It will be probably on the agenda of the
Greek presidency in the first half of 2014. It will be discussed only at Council
level and in this WG there will be no longer discussion about this new
legislation.

Always a point on the agenda is
the intended use of the PPE. In the past most PPE were for professional use only
but the scope over the last years is extended to non-professional use and also
private use, like bicycle helmets for children. Also the industry places more
and more private and non-professional use PPE’s on the market. It is their
responsibility to put CE marked products on the market. But there always will be
a discussion if it is PPE or another product that is not under this scope of
this WG.

The next meeting of this WG in
2014 will probably be on 8th of April and 18th of September.

CEN-CLC BT WG8 Protective textiles and protective clothing and equipment

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The programming mandate M/509 was adressed by the European Commission to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI on the 18th of September 2012. CEN/CENELEC accepted the mandate on the 8th of November 2012. 

CEN and CENELEC created the Working Group “CEN/CLC BT WG 8 “Protective textiles and personal protective clothing and equipment” with the objective to develop a work programme in response to the mandate. Mr. Henk Vanhoutte (ESF), rapporteur for the PPE sector, was appointed as convenor for this BT WG.

The programming mandate M/509 was adressed by the European Commission to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI on the 18th of September 2012. CEN/CENELEC accepted the mandate on the 8th of November 2012. 

CEN and CENELEC created the Working Group “CEN/CLC BT WG 8 “Protective textiles and personal protective clothing and equipment” with the objective to develop a work programme in response to the mandate. Mr. Henk Vanhoutte (ESF), rapporteur for the PPE sector, was appointed as convenor for this BT WG.
On the 17th of January 2013 a kick off meeting of BT WG 8 was organised at CEN/CENELEC meeting centre in Brussels. Four Tasks Groups were created. The descriptions of the assigned tasks to the different groups are:
Task Group 1: Compatibility of different elements – Technology
Task Group 2: Compatibility of different elements – Integration of the complete system
Task Group 3: Comfort and ergonomics
– Explore existing standards in the field of ergonomics and comfort in order to identify whether recent technology developments and smart integrated protection systems would require further standarisation in this field
Task Group 4: Environmental sustainability and total cost of ownership
On behalf of FEES Mr. R. Hoftijzer participated at the meetings and was secretary of Task Group 3.
Dowload the final report from attachment area below.