The new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was finally adopted on 25th April 2006, and was published in the Official Journal of the EU (L157) in June. Member States must implement the Directive by 29th June 2008, and it will be applicable from 29th December 2009. Until that date, the current Machinery Directive 98/37/EC will continue to apply.

Despite the contained scale of changes in the new Machinery Directive from the current version, 98/37/EC, the review and amendment of over 600 harmonized standards which are cited in the Official Journal of the EU and give rise to the presumption of conformity present a particular challenge which should not be underestimated for the Safety of Machinery Sector at the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and for the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC).

In the future, manufacturers of electrical machinery will no longer need to determine from the results of their risk assessment whether a machine falls under the Low-voltage Directive, 73/23/EEC, or the new Machinery Directive (2006/42/EG). An acceptable solution for clear differentiation between the scope of the two directives has been created in the form of the product list in Article 1 (2) of the new Machinery Directive.

Two KAN workshops were held on 1 December 2005 and 7 March 2006 on the instruments available to OH&S representatives for influencing the ISO standards development process. At these workshops, some 60 OH&S experts discussed the consequences for occupational health and safety of the growing internationalization of standardization. The results of the workshop are now to be translated into concrete measures in conjunction with the affected groups.

Chromium VI in cement may trigger a chromate allergy (mason's itch). This relationship, which has long been known, resulted in 2003 in a European limit value being defined of 2 mg/kg for chromium VI in cement and preparations containing cement. In Germany, this limit value had already been in force since the late 1990s. A standardized measurement method is required to permit checking of whether the European limit value for chromium VI is observed.

In mid-2005, the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) published a study conducted by BIT into the use of standards for implementation of the requirements of the Machinery Directive amongst medium-sized machinery manufacturers. The study revealed limited familiarity with the structure and relevance of standards on the part of manufacturers, and that standards were consequently unable to fulfil their intended purpose satisfactorily.