Safety - Prevention of explosive

In Europe, equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres (ATEX), covering a range of products, including those used on fixed offshore platforms, petrochemical plants, mines, and flour mills, are regulated by the ATEX Directive (2014/34/EU).

There are two main CEN and CENELEC Technical Committees developing standards in support of the ATEX Directive, i.e. CEN/TC 305 'Potentially explosive atmospheres - Explosion prevention and protection' and CLC/TC 31 'Electrical apparatus for potentially explosive atmospheres'. European Standards developed in support of the ATEX Directive are offered and cited in the Official Journal of the European Union.

EU legislation and mandates

Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (Official Journal C 80 of 10 March 2001) directly focuses on social security and on health and safety aspects at the workplace and sets out the frame for the development of European Directives in this field. Directives developed under article 153 contain minimum requirements, which have to be adopted by the member states. However, these Directives “shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent protective measures compatible with this Treaty”.

In the scope of article 153, the improvement of occupational health and safety lies primarily with the Member States. However, standardization is possible and has shown good results e.g. in the following fields: Terms and definitions, Measurement and planning of measurement, Testing and sampling procedures, Statistical methods and data exchange, Safety signals and warning signs, Selection of equipment.

Useful links

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OHSA)
International Labour Organization (ILO)
International Social Security Association (ISSA)
Business Europe
European Trade Union Institute (ETUI)
European Safety Federation
European Technology Platforms - Industrial safety
European Occupational safety and health network (EUROSHNET): The European Occupational safety and health network (EUROSHNET) produced the Cracow Memorandum Standardisation for Safe Products in 2008. It reflects the views of European occupational safety and health experts active in standardisation, testing, certification and related research. It deals with possible improvements to the preparation and use of standards in support of New Approach directives, which refer to standards as one means of providing a presumption of conformity to the relevant Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) of these directives. CEN SAB OH&S has declared itself in full agreement with the principles of this memorandum.

ISO/TC 283 Occupational health and safety management: Besides, a number of tools have been developed to assist OH&S professionals and standardizers in their work. Some of these may have been developed from a particular national viewpoint and legal framework but could still be valuable in other situations.

Search function databases

Networks of professionals or sectoral organisations working on accidents and trauma at work

WorkingonSafety.net is supported by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and attempts to bring accident prevention experts together and to facilitate exchange of information and experience between different countries and sectors. It consists of an Internet platform including a who's who and a bi-annual conference;
Safer by Design is a project from the quarrying industry, with a compilation of best practices in that sector and a database of incidents alerts.

OHS data for Europe

EU-OSHA – European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
EU-OSHA: OSH Barometer – A data visualisation tool for facts and figures about a range of OSH issues across Europe, including how risks are managed, working conditions, demographics, health impact, policies and strategies

Digitalization and OHS