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 > > > > ------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety > Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. > > Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ > > To cancel your subscription, send mail to: > majord...@ieee.org > with the single line: > unsubscribe emc-pstc > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com > Dave Heald: davehe...@mediaone.net > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org > Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org > > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ > Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list" > ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
