Electrical instalations

CENELEC 64 a/b
ELECTRICAL INSTALATIONS AND PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTRIC SHOCK

Electrical installation in European private houses is a large market where small and micro enterprises are very active and where they often cover more than 80% of the market. The normative situation in the EU member states is still very heterogeneous. Different rules and standards still apply in this sector, which need to be coordinated in order to assure safety to users and workers, but one is still far from a complete harmonisation. CENELEC TC 64, already active since many years, is trying to provide harmonised standards for electrical installations.

Mr Giulio Dall’Olio is NORMAPME’s expert appointed jointly by CNA, which represents the biggest share of Italian electrical installers and have a long record of activities in the electrical sector. Mr Dall’Olio, electrical engineer, who runs his own engineering consultancy company, is already a member of the Italian mirror committee.

Mr Dall’Olio participates in the activities of TC 64 “Electrical installations and protection against electric shock”, SC 64A “Electrical installations and protection against electric shock” and SC 64B “Electrical installations of buildings: Protection against thermal effects”.  He works in 3 WGs: 13, 18 and 5, dealing with conductors and cables, installations’ thermal effects, electromagnetic fields.

Within those groups he proposed to include concrete draws and tables, in particular within the standard drafted by WG 13, HD 60364-4-444 ‘Protection against electromagnetic interferences (EMI) in installation in buildings’. To have draws and simple tables within the texts of these standards would ease the working life of thousands of installers.

 

Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF)
CENELEC TC 106x

The 2004/40/EC Directive on protection of workers is one of four directives on physical agents. These agents consist of noise, vibration, optical radiation, electromagnetic fields. This TC concerns itself with the Directive on EMF. This approach could possibly work for other agents however it is not the appropriate response to EMF.

The main problems which exist with this directive relate to the difficulty encountered in measuring it and the cost burden involved. Also consultants and specialists in this area are scarce. EMF is everywhere and all around us and due to its nature, protection is very difficult to acknowledge or identify.

NORMAPME appointed expert to this TC is Mr. Florent Liffran. Mr. Liffran participates actively in this TC and believes that this issue has great implications for SMEs. The incoming revision of the directive is a key point in the impact of the EMF-related issues for SMEs. NORMAPME has made its position clear, through pragmatic propositions which need to be defended, to avoid excessively binding directives that could affect SME competitiveness.

The objective is to obtain the inclusion of a simplified risk assessment for the large majority of European enterprises and a “step-by-step” approach taking into consideration the factory processes applied by enterprises.

NORMAPME has participated to the EMF workshop scheduled on 6th -8th October 2009 in Umea (Sweden). The EC was informed on that occasion that we were in favour of simplified procedures for complying with the limits. Our recommendation was taken into account and included as a point in the EC representative’s conclusive speech at the Umea meeting.

On May 20th, 2010 the European Commission launched the second stage consultation with the social partners at EU level for the possible amendment of Directive 2004/40/EC on minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (electromagnetic fields).  
NORMPAME expert, Florent Liffran has formulated comments on the consultation with respect to the position of SMEs and will respond conjointly with UEAPME to the call for opinion and input by July 5th 2010.
The main issues which were addressed at the most recent TC/Working group meetings held in Espoo, Finland on May 5th, 2010 are:
The ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection), the commission which provided the guidelines and exposure levels which were considered in the 2004/40/EC EMF directive, has issued some new documents (link to full text attached below:
Amendment to the ICNIRP “Statement on medical magnetic resonance (MR) procedures: protection of patients”.
The last statement on the use of MR was released in 2004. This document summarised the conclusions of the studies on that topic which have occurred since 2004. The recommendations remain the same as those issued in 2004.
With regard to the EMF directive, MR is a very important field of lobbying, as it is at the heart of the motives for the current suspension of the 2004/40/EC directive. Keeping the same recommendations for MR will probably lead to the same position from the MR lobby on the directive.
ICNIRP statement on the “Guidelines for Limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (up to 300GHz)”
The last ICNIRP study on this topic dates from 1998. The conclusions of this study were at the origin of the exposure limit level described in the EN50499 norm. This document makes a statement on the studies that have been conducted on this topic since 1998.
The conclusion is that despite many investigations having been conducted; no additional adverse effects have been noticed. The exposure limitation is still determined through consideration of the induced current in the body, causing either thermal effect (such as in a micro-wave oven) or vertigo. Long term effects such as induced cancer are not considered as noticeable.
The Interphone study, a multi-country coordinated case control study addressing the risk of cancer arising from the intensive use of mobile phone close to the head, shows no increase in cancer probability using a mobile phone in the past 10 years. Thus, the ICNIRP keeps the same recommendation on EMF exposures (with same exposure limit level), and will wait for longer duration data before drawing conclusion for exposure of longer than 10 years.
The next scheduled meetings are:
January 2011: NORMAPME expert meeting in Brussels, date to be confirmed

GUIDELINES FOR LIMITING EXPOSURE TO TIME-VARYING
ELECTRIC, MAGNETIC, AND ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
(UP TO 300 GHz) - http://www.icnirp.de/documents/emfgdl.pdf

AMENDMENT TO THE ICNIRP “STATEMENT ON MEDICAL
MAGNETIC RESONANCE (MR) PROCEDURES: PROTECTION
OF PATIENTS” - http://www.icnirp.de/documents/MR2009.pdf