Personal Protective equipment: Safeguarding workers and consumers

Making a living can be a risky business. But with the priority given to the issue of safety at work by the EU and its Member States, European workplaces are among the safest in the world and getting safer. In fact, the EU’s rate of serious accidents at work has fallen in recent years, decreasing by 22% between 1998 and 2005, according to the Union’s statistical service.

Nevertheless, work environments are not risk free and more than 5,700 Europeans die each year in work-related accidents, according to the same source. In addition, the International Labour Organisation estimates that nearly 160,000 workers in the EU die every year from occupational diseases, i.e. any chronic ailment that occurs as a result of work.

These statistics highlight the ongoing importance of improving the safety of both the workers and the workplace. To improve the EU’s performance in this area, the Union launched a new five-year strategy (2007-2012) which aims to cut by a quarter work-related accidents in Europe.

Against this backdrop, personal protective equipment (PPE) is one important element in the EU’s defensive shield against work-related accidents and illnesses. PPE is any device or appliance designed to be worn or held by an individual for protection against one or more health and safety hazards. These include – among others – head, respiratory, eye, face and hearing protection, as well as protective clothing. While used mostly in the workplace, PPE is also essential to home and leisure products, such as sports goods.

Protection is better than cure

In order to ensure the highest level of protection across the EU, to underwrite the free movement of goods in the Union’s single market and to level the competitive playing field for companies manufacturing and placing personal protective equipment on the market, the EU adopted Directive 89/686/EEC on personal protective equipment two decades ago, in 1989.

The Directive applies to any device or appliance which has been specifically designed to protect an individual against one or more health and safety hazards. It defines the legal obligations for PPE so as to ensure that the European market gives the highest level of protection against hazards. By setting the highest possible requirements, the legislation removes the need for documentation and testing for each national European market. Instead, manufacturers, or relevant economic operators, such as importers, may acquire CE marking for a given product just once and not in each Member State where they intend to market it. A CE marking is a declaration by the responsible person that the product conforms to all applicable EU provisions and that the appropriate conformity assessment procedures have been completed. Moreover, manufacturers or their authorised EU representative can comply with the technical requirements either directly, or by means of European Harmonised Standards (see box on the New Approach).

This saves companies the time and resources required to gain approval for their products in each Member State, which is particularly useful for SMEs. In addition, it broadens the range of protective products available to safeguard the health and well-being of European workers. The Directive, which has been transposed into the national laws of EU Member States, has helped both to improve safety at work and to create a truly single European market in PPE.

Signposts to safety

While it is up to individual Member States, through their market surveillance authorities, to ensure that only compliant PPE is placed on the market, and it is the responsibility of standards bodies and industry to set and implement the necessary standards, the European Commission also has a crucial role in this.

One important part it plays is to help the various stakeholders coordinate their efforts and promote understanding of and compliance with the Directive. Towards that end, the Commission organises, twice a year, the PPE Working Group meeting where all stakeholders are present to discuss questions and issues raised concerning the implementation of the Directive. In the spirit of this, the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG, in consultation with Member States, European industry, European standardisation organisations and notified bodies compiled a guide to the application of the PPE Directive.

The document outlines the scope and provisions of the legislation, details the certification procedures and explains how CE marking works. In its annex, it provides a guide to the categorisation of PPE listing the applicable category for products in the scope of the Directive. This is an important aspect as different conformity assessment procedures apply based on the category of the PPE.