CEN and CENELEC are producing standards to meet the Essential Health and Safety Requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulation (EU) 2016/425.
An important step forward was made with the adoption of the Regulation (EU) 2016/425 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on personal protective equipment. The PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425 became applicable on 21 April 2018 and repeals the PPE Directive 89/686/EEC.
PPE may be worn for Occupational Health and Safety purposes, as well as sports or other recreational activities. Ergonomics, safety and comfort are the three main considerations when designing new PPE.
The mission of the CEN-CENELEC Coordination Group on Personal Protective Equipment (CEN-CLC/COG PPE) is to establish coordination mechanisms among technical bodies dealing with standardization activities on Personal Protective Equipment.
The COG has the responsibility for the following tasks:
- coordinate the work programme for standardization request (SReq) on Personal Protective Equipment (M/571) and prepare progress reports for the EC/EFTA when necessary;
- in relation to the SReq, exchange information with the European Commission and EFTA secretariat on standardization matters related to Personal Protective Equipment;
- develop a coordination mechanism to enable the relevant committees to carry out the following tasks on a long-term basis:
- coordinate and address the topic of Personal Protective Equipment among technical bodies, including making proposals to the Technical Boards for the allocation of work;
- ensure information exchange and coordinate as appropriate with similar international and other regional activities concerning relevant standardization issues, as requested by the Technical Boards;
- clarify horizontal questions to avoid unnecessary discussions in technical groups, if needed;
- monitor upcoming developments (e.g. through workshops) like emerging risks, digitalization, UN sustainability goals, smart PPE, influence of climate change, to identify gaps in PPE standardization and prepare proposals for allocation of (new) standardization activities to specific Technical Committee
- provide recommendations and progress reports to the Technical Boards
