Nick,
To some degree, I beg to differ with your explanation,
particularly with the following:
"It is these national regulations that have direct force
of law on manufacturers, traders and users of equipment
in that member state. It is not a matter of crossing
boundaries into the EU or between member states, and not
a matter of it being just wise to meet the various
requirements. Wherever you are in the EU you will be
breaking a local national law if you do not."
For ITE, the EU requires compliance to the Low Voltage
and EMC Directives. They have further listed harmonized
standards which are deemed sufficent to comply. Under
the present process, a manufacturer can obtain a CB Report
of create a Technical Construction File to meet the LVD,
and take EMC data at an authorized test site to meet the
EMC Directive.
At that point the manufacturer can apply the CE marking,
and file a EU Declaration of Conformity within the EU.
Since this process was adopted by the EU, we have not
had a single EU member state ask to see either our DoC
or our background test data/reports.
So, there are no "national" regulations, but only the
EU regulations, which were designed to do away with the
many diveregent national regulations. Again, the EU
"law" applies to member states, over which the EU has
some power. There is no "law" pertaining to mfrs, but
the Directives as to what the member states are to do
to ensure "safe" products. If a mfr manages to place a
product on the market that does not meet the LV or EMC
Directives, it is the member state which allowed entry
of the product that is held accountable. Of course, a
mfr found doing this would have to remove the product
from the market and would have a hard time doing future
business in the EU.
George Alspaugh
"Nick Rouse" <nickjrouse%cs....@interlock.lexmark.com> on 03/22/2002 04:44:05 PM
To: "emc" <emc-pstc%majordomo.ieee....@interlock.lexmark.com>,
"George_Alspaugh/Lex/Lexmark.LEXMARK"@sweeper.lex.lexmark.com
cc: (bcc: George Alspaugh/Lex/Lexmark)
Subject: Re: U.S. Safety Regulations
Thanks George for your outline of the basic
way US safety works. Perhaps I may expand
a bit on how EU directives works. First the EU
directives are, as you say, not in themselves
directly law in any of the member states.
What they do is to direct each of the member
states to pass into their national laws regulations
emboding the requirements of the directive and
most importantly to repeal any other legislation
that lays any requirement in the aera covered
on anyone placing relavant products on the
market or taking them into service. The member
states are bound to do this under the terms of the
treaty of Rome and other European treaties. Any
member state not properly transposing a directive
into national Law is in principle liable to be taken
by the Commission to the European Courts.
The wording of the directives, heavy on permissive
clauses and requirements on governments to allow
goods to be moved, sold and put into service,
surprises some people but it must be remembered
that the wellspring of most of this legislation is the
idea of a single European Market. The member
states are not allowed to have local regulations that
may act as an indirect trade barrier favoring local
suppliers over those of other member states.
By a having just a unified set of European technical
requirements it is hoped to create a level playing
field for all paticipants in the European market.
The directives are usually implimented by some form
of secondary legislation. Here in the UK we use things
call statutary instruments. The Single European Market
Act of 1987 was passed through the full legislative
process but gives thereafter ministers of the crown the
right to draft statutary instruments to impliment directives
into UK law. They are placed in the libaries of both
houses of parliment and it is in principle open to
the members of parliament to pass a resolution
anulling these instruments. In practice this never
happens and after 7 days they automatically
become statute law.
It is these national regulations that have direct
force of law on manufacturers, traders and users
of equipment in that memmber state. It is not a matter
of crossing boundaries into the EU or between member
states, and not a matter of it being just wise to meet
the various requirements. Wherever you are in the
EU you will be breaking a local national law if you do not .
The various national implimentations should all be the
same but just to remind everyone that we still are 15
independant countries, there are small quirks in the
the various implimentations that the Commission has not
thought serious enough to stamp on. One such if the
UK modified application of the EMC directive to
educational establishments. In addition the member
states may apply to the Commission for the right to
have extra local laws to meet special local requirements
An example of this is the UK 1994 Plugs and Sockets
etc.(Safety) regulations that require the fitting of
UK style fused plugs to equipment solt to comsumers.
Nick Rouse
----- Original Message -----
From: <geor...@lexmark.com>
To: <emc-p...@ieee.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 9:57 PM
Subject: U.S. Safety Regulations
>
>
>
> There seems to be some confusion regarding U.S. product safety
> regulations. It is not as complicated as some have made it
> appear. I will try to simplify this topic.
>
> First, the European Directives may be EU law, but they are only
> directed to member states, not manufacturers, over which they
> have no legal authority. Read the text of some Directives. The
> EU Directives outline to member states what standards products
> must meet to enter the EU via any country border. Hence, manu-
> facturers who wish to market in the EU would be wise to adhere
> to the LVD and other applicable Directives.
>
> The U.S. OSHA regulations are virtually the same in this respect.
> These regs describe what employers must do to ensure a safe
> workplace. The employer is barred under OSHA rules from allowing
> employees to use specified products that do not meet OSHA require-
> ments. Hence, manufacturers who wish to market in the U.S. to
> businesses would be wise to adhere to OSHA requirements.
>
> Now, it is somewhat true that electrical products for the U.S.
> can either be NRTL approved for total U.S. distribution, or be
> approved by every local city/county electrical safety authority.
> BTW, this is an option that does not exist within the EU that I
> know of. Now, which method do you think is easier and less costly?
> Duh! I assure you it is the NRTL route, even if you desire to enter
> only one local market.
>
> There have been several opinions offered as to why any U.S. (or
> other) safety regs exist. My personal opinion is that manufacturers
> should apply the following concepts, in the order given:
>
> - provide products that will not cause injury or property damage
> - provide products that meet the standards
> - provide products that exceed the standards if appropriate to
> achieve the first item
> - if the above are done, there is little else you can do to
> minimize product liability litigation
>
> [The above comments do not necessarily apply to extremely large
> and expensive products sold in volumes of only 1, 10, or so. These
> may best be handled by on-site installation approvals.]
>
> George Alspaugh
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