Advisory committee on safety brings broad experience, tight focus

By Jeanne Erdmann

IEC Advisory Committees have a complex job. ACOS (the Advisory Committee on Safety) is no exception. Reporting to the IEC SMB (Standardization Management Board), ACOS is "responsible for the assignment of horizontal safety functions and group safety functions".

ACOS guidelines cover numerous types of
hazards related to many pieces of
equipment or systems that use
electrotechnology

The term "safety" is strictly defined in ISO/IEC Guide 51, Safety aspects – Guidelines for their inclusion in standards, as addressing the protection of people but also the protection of property and environment.

ACOS is currently putting final touches to IEC Guide 116, Guidelines for safety related risk assessment and risk reduction for low voltage equipment. At more than 30 pages, the guide covers everything that an IEC TC (Technical Committee) or SC (Subcommittee) could need for drafting its own safety standards for such equipment, including risk assessments for all kinds of hazards, such as fire, electric shock and functional safety.

For example, in fire testing it makes no sense to have different test procedures for each kind of product. If there is one standardized test procedure available for each of the different fire hazard aspects, test houses have to make an investment only once and can test various products covered by different TCs. So this minimization of test procedures via horizontal safety standards also has commercial aspects.

Guidelines need to be both specific about where problems can arise and sufficiently broad so that they do not relate only to a single TC.

From hearing aids to guidelines on safety

ACOS Chair Friedrich Harless joined the IEC in the 1990s as part of the German delegation to TC 44: Safety of machinery - Electrotechnical aspects. Harless studied electrotechnology at the University of Erlangen, Germany, and spent much of the early part of his career dealing with hearing aids and auxiliary equipment. Seeking a new challenge in another field of technology, he changed his area of activities and entered the standards field, first at the national level working for Siemens and then at the international with the IEC. While a TC 44 member, Harless was chosen to serve on ACOS. Today, he heads both ACOS, where he’s on his last term, and TC 44, where he is Chair.

ACOS guidelines cover numerous types of hazards related to many pieces of equipment or systems that use electrotechnology, including ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). "Typical hazards might include electric shock, fire, explosions or implosions, mechanical or moving parts, electromagnetic emissions and so on. In particular, ACOS deals with safety standards that are used for CA (Conformity Assessment) purposes," explains Harless.

The TCs appoint ACOS members from their own committees. ACOS needs technical competence much more than regional representation, says Harless. But geographical balance can’t be ignored. Thus, ACOS recently went from four to six Expert members to ensure that global representation is guaranteed. These Expert members are appointed as follows: two from the Americas, two from Europe and Africa, and two from Asia and Australia.

Three guides

ACOS members have recently finished work on three guides:

• IEC Guide 104, The preparation of safety publications and the use of basic safety publications and group safety publications
• IEC Guide 116, Guidelines for safety related risk assessment and risk reduction for low voltage equipment
• IEC Guide 117, Temperatures of touchable hot surfaces (soon to be released).

Now, members have begun working on project Guide 110: Home control systems-guidelines relating to safety. In December, members will start to revise ISO (International Organization for Standardization)/IEC Guide 51, Safety aspects - Guidelines for their inclusion in standards, which covers the overall risk approach for technical safety.

Future Challenges

Besides safety-related risks to people, the environmental links to safety have been part of the risk consideration since 1999, the publication date of the current ISO/IEC Guide 51. "Of course our experts are well aware of environmental challenges but the order of priority is clear: First, protect human beings, second, look after property and environment," says Harless.

"Nowadays you can’t ignore environmental requirements," says Harless. The SMB has another Advisory Committee, ACEA (Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects) that deals with environmental matters. In future, ACOS will cooperate more with ACEA.

ACOS has already begun addressing environmental matters in the context of low voltage safety. Annex A, Safety principles and basic safety requirements for LV equipment, of IEC Guide 116 includes various environmental aspects and Harless foresees that safety experts will have to take environmental aspects more into account in future.

In the IEC we've already shown that ACOS and ACEA can establish a mutual exchange of expertise which works perfectly, says Harless. "But of course only for those sources which have their origin in safety-related matters," he explains. "In Germany we had already a controversial discussion about this.

"One of the biggest challenges in this area is the increasing severity of regulations. Product designers have to look at safety, the environment and user requirements all the while taking into account regulations that are increasingly difficult to implement. "We are working on reference standards that take into account both the environment and safety. In the IEC there is no compulsory aspect, everything is voluntary."

Harless cites the example of biological and chemical effects of pathogens, micro-organisms, cleaning and disinfecting substances such as lubricating oils and cleaning fluids. "This is a long process, but we are confident that over time it will grow."