Chapter 4.2
A global perspective on standards
Industrial safety is a universal concern, but regulations can vary widely from one region to another. In this chapter, we explore the key global standards and what they mean for creating safer, more compliant workplaces.
Machines must be safe everywhere in the world
There is no country that does not have its own rules for work safety and occupational health. However, these rules can vary significantly. To help with this, the following provides a rough overview of how standardisation is organised worldwide.
In some regions—particularly in Europe (that is, the EU member states and countries aspiring to be included in the EU)—the responsibilities of machinery manufacturers and enterprises operating them are clearly differentiated. Numerous regulations and standards detail the specific obligations of each party.
In other regions, such as the USA, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia, do not have such a clear distinction of responsibilities. In these countries, regulations for occupational safety and health largely determine the guidelines for designing safe machinery for professional use. In the USA, for instance, OSHA regulations, as outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR 1910), play a crucial role in ensuring industrial safety.
One of the most frequently asked questions by technicians and sales organizations is: “Can we market our product in this or that country? Or do we have to observe additional regulations and standards?” The answer is rarely a simple “yes” or “no” and often requires careful research. To help with this, the following provides a rough overview of how standardization is organized worldwide.
Despite regional differences in regulatory frameworks, all industrialized countries share a reliance on international standards. The two primary international institutions are ISO (International Standards Organization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). These organizations work closely with hundreds of national standardization bodies and the three European standardization institutions: CEN (European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).
Regional adoption and enforcement of international standards
The extent to which international standards are adopted as national standards varies considerably between the different regions and countries.
In Europe for instance, a European standard (EN) must be accepted by all members of the European standardization organizations. In contrast, the members of ISO may decide whether they want to add an international standard to their list of national standards. This explains, for instance, why some international industrial safety standards are US-standards and Chinese standards, while others are not. To complicate matters further, international standards are sometimes adopted with national amendments and additions.
Another difference lies in the degree to which standards are binding. While technical standards are not normally legally binding in democratic countries, a standard is considered a law or part of a law in some authoritarian countries, like China for instance. However, individual democratic countries and regions like the EU have also made the application of many technical standards mandatory. For example, most of the industrial safety standards are published in the Official Journal of the European Union and then bear what is called the “assumption of conformity”. That is, if manufacturers makes their products in conformity with such published harmonised standards, those products are deemed to be in conformity with EU regulations.
