Several comments were made relative to the evolving General
Product Safety Directive (92/59/EEC) and CE marking that may
have given an inaccurate view. Here is my understanding:
The EU now requires "CE" marking on a broad variety of imported
products as a condition of entering the EU.
The display of the "CE" marking means that the product complies with
all "applicable" EU Directives for that product.
The required EU Declaration of Conformity (DoC) for each "CE" marked
product states the Directives to which the product conforms, and often
the standards or method by which conformity was verified.
As a result of the above, you can find the "CE" marking on household
kitchen appliances, electric razors, stuffed animals, etc. In other words,
"CE" is not just for electrical equipment.
The GPSD appears to be aimed at many consumer products for which
there is now no specific Directive or EU legislation. However, since this
1992 Directive is not well understood by even members of the EU, recent
Commission discussions are with the intent of clarifying this Directive,
possibly replacing it with a new version.
Although no specific product examples are cited, there are references to
"food products". There are also references to the following Union death
rates in 1996:
workplace deaths 6000
traffic accidents 45000
home and leisure accidents 83000
This explains the emphasis on consumer products and services.
Although the langauge sounds like it was written by a committee of
lawyers, I think it implies that where products conform to existing product
safety Directives/legislation, the GPSD does not apply.
These are merely my opinions on a very complex document....
George Alspaugh
-------------------------------------------
This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety
Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list.
To cancel your subscription, send mail to:
[email protected]
with the single line:
unsubscribe emc-pstc
For help, send mail to the list administrators:
Jim Bacher: [email protected]
Michael Garretson: [email protected]
For policy questions, send mail to:
Richard Nute: [email protected]
