New PPE Directive being developed
June 25th 2009 The BSIF is closely involved in the development of a revised directive to replace the existing regulations. Likely to be in force in the early 2010s, there are many adjustments agreed by EU member states to strengthen and clarify the ways in which the rules on PPE will be enforced and to prevent the availability in the market of products which do not comply.
Test Certificates will likely have a "sell-by" date of five years and every member state will be required to operate an accreditation system for Notified Bodies to reduce variations between the different countries within the EU. To make compliance mechanisms more robust, it is currently envisaged that Head protection, Hearing Protection and Industrial Foot protection as well as products providing Hi-Visibility and protection for chain-saw users will all move from Category II to Category III.
To avoid the current problems associated with deep supply chains, such as user information not reaching the point of sale the scope of the new directive is to extend to all "economic operators". This will ensure that importers and distributors take full account of the implications of selling questionable PPE as they too will then carry specific responsibilities when the new directive comes into force. More articles from BSIF Enterprise: | 
