Essential health and safety requirements

Directives are the European laws published in the Official Journal that give us the essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs) that shall be followed by product suppliers. These are commonly called the Essential Requirements (ERs). The directives deal with legal and procedural issues, such as assessment procedures, certification, implementation, enforcement, technical files, declarations, CE marking, and other basic concepts. Examples of primary directives are the Low-Voltage, Machinery, and EMC directives. The General Product Safety and Product Liability Directives are basic directives dealing with enforcement and civil prosecution that are applied to all products. The directives also mandate the publication and mutual recognition of harmonized standards. 

I hereby declare that the machinery complies with the Essential Health and Safety Requirements of the Machinery Directive (89/392/EEC) and with the provisions of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (89/336/EEC), as amended by 93/68/EEC. 

European standards are clearly the main path toward conformity. Although use of European standards is voluntary in one sense, European harmonized standards have become the technical governing rules and are in reality the obligatory way for manufacturers to reduce uimecessaiy risks and to meet the EU directives. In practice, only published European harmonized standards, such as ENs (EN = European Norm), should be used to show conformity. European harmonized standards (ENs) offer the simplest means of meeting the essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs) of the directives. 

Directives. Directives are European laws that detail the legal, procedural, and CE marking requirements for products. Directives are published in the Official Journal and describe in general terms the essential health and safety requirements that must be met to allow products to be placed on the market and ensure the free movement of goods. The directives also mandate the publication of safety and EMC standards that equipment manufacturers must follow to obtain the presumption of conformity. ... 

European harmonised legislation (including CE marking) is predominantly aimed at the fiee movement of goods and trade, but covers the harmonisation of Essential Health and Safety Requirements which could otherwise be a barrier to trade. 

For machinery, an interconnection of parts, one of which moves under power, causes the complex product to fall within the scope of the Machinery Directive (EC 2006a) (MD). All hazards posed by the machinery are subject to the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSR) relating to the design and construction of machinery and given in Annex I of the Machinery Directive. Note that apparatus that moves under purely manual effort is out of scope of the Machinery Directive, except for manually powered lifting equipment. 

The ROPS must meet international standards such as ISO 3471 1994. All mobile equipment safeguards should comply with the essential health and safety requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations but need not carry a CE marking. 

To comply with the Regulations, machinery and safety components must satisfy the essential health and safety requirements (set out in Annex B to the Regulations), which apply to it. The requirements are wide-ranging, and take into account potential dangers to operators and other exposed persons within a danger zone . Aspects covered in Part 1 include the materials used in the construction of the machinery lighting controls ... 

When applying the essential health and safety requirements, technical and economic limitations at the time of construction may be taken into account. 

Machinery and safety components manufactured in conformity with specified, published European standards which have also been published as identically worded national standards ( transposed harmonized standards ), will be presumed to comply with the essential health and safety requirements covered by those standards. 

The responsibility for demonstrating that the machinery or safety component satisfies the essential health and safety requirements rests on the responsible person . 

Employment Rights Act 1996 Essential health and safety requirement European Union European waste catalogue... 

The Regulations have attached to them an extensive list of requirements called Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) which must be complied with by manufacturers or suppliers. Among them are quite generic safety requirements covering electrical systems, including ... 

The main duty on manufacturers or suppliers is to ensure that equipment destined for use in potentially explosive atmospheres satisfies relevant Essential Health and Safety Requirements, which are listed in Schedule 3 of the Regulations. The Requirements relate to three groups common requirements, supplementary requirements for equipment, and supplementary requirements for protective systems. Protective systems are defined as design units which are intended to halve incipient explosions immediately and/or to limit the effective range of explosion flames and explosion pressures. Protective systems may be integrated into equipment or separately placed on the market for use as autonomous systems. 

In the context of safety-related control systems, the Essential Health and Safety Requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 lay down generic requirements that must be considered by suppliers for the safety and reliability of control systems control devices starting and stopping devices mode selection failure of the power supply and the control circuit software and movable guards. 

In the UK, the type testing and certification work has been carried out by the Electrical Equipment Certification Services (EECS), which is part of HSE, and by SIRA Test and Certification Ltd. The Equipment and Protective Systems Intended for Use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 1996 will change this, because they introduce a legal requirement for compliance with the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) and the application of the CE mark using the applicable conformity assessment procedures, which may involve the participation of a notified body. This is a complicated area but, in summary ... 

It satisfies relevant essential health and safety requirements... 

Detailed drawings (including calculation notes, test results and similar data) to check conformity with the essential health and safety requirements > A list of the following which were used when the machinery was designed ... 

The essential health and safety requirements are detailed in Schedule 3 to the regulations and cover a wide range of issues including ... 

Certain categories of machines (agi-foodstuffs machinery, portable machinery, etc.) have additional essential health and safety requirements that must also be satisfied. 

The declaration of conformity is the procedure whereby the manufacturer declares that the item of machinery complies with the essential health and safety requirements and CE marking is used to indicate this on the machinery. 

---