Personal protective equipment

Key points:

The EESC:

• supports the Commission's aim of replacing the 1989 directive by a regulation, because it will ensure uniform and compulsory application in all the Member States;
• whilst feeling that most of the proposed changes are positive, questions whether some of the proposed changes are necessary (inclusion of products for private use providing protection against heat, damp and water; and the variety of language requirements for different types of information that have to be communicated);
• considers that PPE use should be integrated into a general policy on risk prevention at work;
• is disappointed that there is no discussion at all of the economic aspects of the European PPE market, and that no account has been taken of PPE maintenance, checking and review procedures, of the case of PPE used by several persons, or of second-hand PPE

Related EESC opinion:

• Opinion on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to personal protective equipment (IND/480, Pearson)

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat