The safety of machinery is a major occupational safety and health function. The subject is also dealt with comprehensively in standards. The task recently arose of adapting the body of standards to the new Machinery Directive. KANBrief discussed current developments with Christoph Preusse, the Chairman of technical committees CEN/TC 114 and ISO/TC 199, “Safety of machinery”.

At the end of 2009, Germany submitted a proposal to ISO for a revision of EN ISO 4254-1, “Agricultural machinery – Safety– Part 1: General requirements”. It marked the beginning of a series of revisions to the standards governing agricultural machinery which were prompted by KAN Report 41, “Safety of agricultural machinery”, and which are now to be implemented successively. The efforts of the occupational safety and health lobby have borne fruit.

Users of harmonized standards need to be fully aware of which provisions in directives are supported by the standards concerned, and which are not. Users relying solely upon the normative parts of harmonized standards and assuming that they will thereby observe all requirements of the directives are on dangerous ground. It is therefore advisable to examine precisely how far the presumption of conformity actually extends.

Measurements of physical parameters repeatedly differ in their results. For this reason, a study commissioned by KAN was conducted in order to determine the extent to which the harmonized standards and draft standards pursuant to the Machinery and PPE Directives contain safety-related requirements that are described in terms of measurement variables, and whether suitable measurement methods are also set out where this is necessary.

CEN has produced a draft guide which is intended to provide assistance in the creation of standards governing services. It is considered indicative of the direction to be taken by future service standards, and is intended for any party – not only those with experience in standardization – with an interest in standardizing their services. Some of the points stated in the guide are however not consistent with the German OSH position.

Located in Düsseldorf, the Institute for Applied Occupational Ergonomics and Industrial Engineering (IfaA) is an institution active in the disciplines of occupational science and corporate organization, and connects research with application in the field. The IfaA’s work is geared to increasing productivity and thus to enhancing the competitiveness of German industry and the retention of jobs in Germany.