KANBrief 3/25
On 1 July 2025, Angela Janowitz, Director of the KAN Secretariat, passed the baton to her successor, Dr Monika Maintz. Looking back, Ms Janowitz talks to us about her 30 years in the service of occupational safety and health in standardization.
Yes, I remember them well! It was an incredibly exciting time. The whole project was born just as times were changing: the Eastern Bloc had recently collapsed, Europe was becoming more open, new countries were joining the EU – everywhere, the mood was one of confidence, openness and a belief in a strong, shared European future.
In line with the mood at the time, Europe boldly set a new course: standards developed by the private sector were to support the implementation of EU legislation. Standardization acquired a key role in the European Single Market – and occupational safety and health was explicitly made part of the process.
This was the environment in which KAN was founded by the German stakeholders in occupational safety and health, with the involvement of DIN. The aim was to give the OSH stakeholders a strong voice vis-à-vis standards bodies, and to implement the requirement of European legislation for the social partners’ influence on standardization activity to be facilitated. At the Secretariat, we were given considerable freedom to turn this mandate into action. Our first task, however, was to build trust in KAN and the Secretariat among all relevant occupational safety and health stakeholders. For the first time, the stakeholders had a dedicated forum to discuss standardization. To lend greater weight to occupational safety and health in standardization, the stakeholders were to reach their decisions by consensus. At the time, this was considered a very ambitious goal. An important step in this direction was taken in 1996, when the DIN Presidial Board recognized KAN as the representative of occupational safety and health stakeholders in German standardization activity, thereby lending particular weight to its voice.
From that point on, KAN had the task of advocating for high safety requirements in product standards. At the same time, the OSH stakeholders considered it important to keep the safety and health of workers at work within the scope of national regulatory arrangements. They had already clearly laid down the boundaries of standardization in the German Consensus Statement (GDS), adopted in 1993. In 1997, the European standards organizations CEN and CENELEC also passed a resolution limiting standards’ scope in shaping of the working environment. ISO and IEC emphasized in their internal regulations that requirements for products and their use should be addressed in separate standards or parts of standards. Defending these boundaries of standardization remains one of KAN’s tasks to this day.
Standardization has become much more international in nature during this time. The OSH community has had to fight to be a part of this process. In addition, standards have increasingly encroached into areas that are regulated in Europe at national level, outside the scope of standardization. This inevitably leads to conflicts. As recently as 2000, the adoption of a British standard on occupational safety management as an international standard was averted, not least thanks to the efforts of the occupational safety and health stakeholders. However, this was not a permanent solution: today, ISO has an entire technical committee devoted to developing standardization documents on this topic.
Standardization is constantly influenced by political developments, new technologies and global events, all of which force KAN to adopt a position. One example was the negotiations concerning the TTIP free trade agreement, which began in 2013: although they ultimately failed, standardization was an important element in these negotiations. In close coordination with OSH partner bodies in France, KAN has repeatedly advocated against such an agreement being reached at the expense of safety and health.
We’re living in a time of great upheaval – social, political and technological. For a long time, the focus of our activity lay on open markets and international cooperation. Now, however, we’re seeing a growing reversion to regional solutions, in our case at European level, and a desire on the part of countries to regain greater control over their markets and processes. This is also evident in standardization.
Overall, the sphere of standardization policy in which KAN operates has evolved hugely. As early as 2003, the European Commission announced its intention to progress with development of the New Approach, i.e. the interaction between European legislation and standardization. Since then, further legislation and strategies have been adopted to strengthen and harmonize this system further: in 2008, the “New Legal Framework”, with regulations governing market surveillance and accreditation; in 2012, the EU Standardisation Regulation; and in 2022, the EU Standardisation Strategy. Revision of the Standardisation Regulation is currently in the pipeline. The Commission wishes to modernize the standardization system and accelerate its processes, and to fulfil its shared responsibility for the content of standards. It wishes to reduce its dependence upon global markets and become better prepared for the digital and green transition. KAN’s view is that ensuring a high level of transparency in the process, involving all stakeholders and developing standards by consensus will remain essential in the future.
A further challenge at present is the rapid technical development of new products such as smart personal protective equipment, self-driving vehicles, smart glasses, collaborative robots and artificial intelligence. These offer numerous opportunities to reduce risks in day-to-day work, but at the same time also give rise to new hazards. OSH experts provide in-depth specialist knowledge on these subjects, and with KAN’s support, present the interests of the OSH stakeholders in standardization activity.
I’m particularly pleased to see that KAN has continually developed, both in its expertise and as an organization. Its stakeholders continue to stand united behind the KAN project. And the Secretariat’s domain expertise is valued, in Germany and across Europe. That’s our strength. To sum up after 30 years: KAN has been and continues to be a strong voice for occupational safety and health, and against the backdrop of current developments, is as important as ever.