The agricultural technology sector is booming: in 2007, revenues in Germany rose by 12% to 5.8 billion euro, and a further increase of 5% is expected for 2008. Over 2,000 companies exhibited their new products in 2007 at the world‘s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery in Hannover. The trend is towards high-tech: productivity and performance appear to be key issues. How can occupational safety and health be assured appropriate consideration?

The agricultural engineering standards group (NLA) of the Mechanical Engineering standards committee (NAM) at DIN is responsible for standardization in the area of tractors and agricultural machinery. Amongst its main activities are the definition of interfaces between tractors, equipment and management systems of agricultural enterprises, and technical requirements and test  procedures in the areas of occupational safety, road safety and environmental protection.

With the enactment of the German Accident Insurance Code some 120 years ago, the safety of agricultural machinery became a key function for the German statutory accident insurance institutions in their mandate to prevent occupational accidents. The safety of agricultural machinery continues to be an area of activity for the agricultural accident insurance institutions. Today, this activity is conducted in the context of international standardization work.

On 25 February 2008, the European Parliament adopted the “Internal Market Package“ at its first reading. The package contains an EU regulation on accreditation and market surveillance and a further regulation on mutual recognition between the Member States of non-harmonized products. In addition, a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council sets out how the Single Market is to be regulated more consistently in the future.

Business services and service sectors such as transport, energy, telecommunications, tourism and leisure account for some 70% of total employment in the EU. The European Commission has recently identified an increasing need for greater standardization of services, in order to support the full functioning of the Internal Market. In response to a mandate from the European Commission, CEN identified eleven priority fields for further action.

The Official Journal of the EU lists two standards for personal protective equipment (PPE) pursuant to the directive 89/686/EEC which describe test procedures for ear muffs with sound level-dependent attenuation. Deletion of the reference to one of these from the Official Journal by means of a formal objection is desirable.