Exoskeletons: focus on product safety
The example of exoskeletons demonstrates the potential complexity of interests in standardisation. Through KAN, the German stakeholders in occupational safety and health have formulated a joint position paper that highlights the significance of standardisation for the placing of exoskeletons on the market. The position paper has the purpose of ensuring that only products that are safe and not detrimental to health are used in the workplace.
In addition, KAN draws attention in the position paper to aspects that must be addressed by standards containing product requirements for exoskeletons. Besides ergonomic requirements, these aspects also concern the requirements to be met by the exoskeletons’ mechanical function, and methods by which this can be tested. In this context, we have set out clearly that standards must not govern any aspects of the safety and health of workers at work.
The diversity of standardisation with a bearing upon occupational safety and health can be seen from the examples of climate change and the digital transformation. The associated risks were discussed by over 100 experts at the ninth EUROSHNET conference in Helsinki. For KAN and the other organisations attending the conference, the relevance of networking throughout Europe has grown steadily, not least because a large proportion of the standards relevant to us are developed at European level. Networking of the European occupational safety and health community is imperative, and EUROSHNET makes an important contribution here. Against this background, we are very pleased to note the entry of ELINYAE, the Greek occupational safety and health institute, to EUROSHNET in the lead-up to this year’s conference.