The representatives of the public authorities took over the chair of KAN on 6th April 2000. Over the last 15 years, under the application of the “New Approach”, government and standards makers have gone new, promising ways in their cooperation in the interests of OH&S.

Large companies often have the resources to operate their own departments devoted to the collection and interpretation of the relevant national, European and international standards. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on the other hand, often lack an inexpensive and readily accessible standards information source tailored to their requirements.

SMEs often have trouble obtaining precise and up-to-date information on standards. A KAN survey has revealed that small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany often approach DIN directly with their standardization queries.

Interview with Ass. jur. Dipl.-Verwaltungswirt Jörg Hagedorn

There are no prospects of an ISO standard on occupational health & safety management systems (OSH-MS) in the foreseeable future. The latest thrust by the British Standards Institution (BSI) at the end of last year has failed – a big success for all those who don't want a standard in this field, including the German health & safety institutions under KAN's organizational umbrella. However, the advocates of such a standard are unlikely to be deterred.

A review of European standards on agricultural machinery has shown that the requirements of the Machinery Directive concerning elements providing protection from moving transmission parts (e.g. v-belts and chain drives) are at present not always sufficiently complied with from the point of view of occupational health & safety.

On 8th November 2000, KAN will be joining forces with the Federal Agency for Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine (BAuA) and the DIN ergonomics standards committee in holding a workshop on standardization in the field of mental stress. The criticism provoked by the adoption of ISO standards as German standards is to be addressed at this event and converted into constructive proposals for amendments and formulations for the ongoing work on this series of standards.

The study „Legal Aspects of Standardisation in the Member States of the EC and the EFTA” on behalf of the European Commission and EFTA has now been published in three volumes.

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