PPE: 89/686/EEC Structure

89/686/EEC concerning Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has 17 Articles and 6 Annexes. Originally published in 1989, the PPE directive only has 3 Modifications 93/95/EEC, 93/68/EEC, and 96/58/EEC.

The Introduction establishes the focus of the directive as ‘safeguarding of public health, improving safety at work and ensuring user protection’ and reinforces the European Commissions’ continuing efforts to create free movement of goods in the European Economic Community through the use of Harmonized Standards. Items such as scope and definition of Personal Protective Equipment, recognition of national standards, reference to the necessity of harmonized standards, effective quality control, conformity assessment procedures, Authorized Representative requirements, and consequences of wrongly affixed CE Marking are all addressed in the Directive.

Annex I lists classes of PPE products not covered by 89/686/EEC
Annex II describes basic health and safety requirements of all Personal Protective Equipment. It also includes the information requirements that must be supplied by the manufacturer to the consumer. Annex II then goes on to describe necessary safety elements to more particular categories of PPE.
Annex III specifies the technical documentation requirements such as:

Overall and detailed plans of the PPE
calculation notes
prototype tests
Basic safety
Harmonized standards specific to the model
Control and test facility description
Quality assurance system
Copy of EC declaration of conformity

Annex IV details the standards and appearance for use of the CE Mark including the requirement of the original year of affixation.
Annex V lists the requirements to be met by notified bodies that perform testing of PPE products.
Annex VI specifies the information required for the EC declaration of conformity.

Last updated Apr 22, 2009

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