Market surveillance on electrical equipment in Denmark

UNECE FORUM ON MARKET SURVEILLANCESession II: Practical experiences when implementing market surveillance on sectoral levelII.1: Household electrical goods29th October - Geneva

Jan Roedjan.roed@elraadet.dk

Head of Market Surveillance and StandardisationDanish Electricity Council

Content• How is Market Surveillance carried out in DK

– About the Electricity Council

– What triggers Market Surveillance

– Basic elements

– Use of statistic to make targeted surveillance

– How to obtain statistical date

– The most striking problems in the area of non-compliance

• What are the achievements of Market Surveillance• Information exchange between Member States • What are the shortcomings of Market Surveillance

Market Surveillance in Denmark

• The Electricity Council– One office located in Copenhagen– Responsibility of all electrical matters– 54 employees in total– 8 inspectors handle the practical Market

Surveillance activities (directly related to electrical appliances)

Market Surveillance in Denmark

• Ministry of Economic and Enterprises

• The Electricity Council

Instal-lations

Standar-disation

Autho-risation

Market surveil-lance

Utility grid

What triggers Market Surveillance?

• It is a de facto requirement from the LVD !!– Special Projects (i.e. Christmas lighting chains)– An accident (fire or electric shock) involving an

electrical apparatus– A complaint

(consumer/retailer/importer/manufacturer)– Random inspection– A notification under article 9 or via the RAPEX

system from another EU Member State

Catch of data to produce statistic• Fire and electric shock related to the use of electric

apparatus and installations reported directly to the Electricity Council

• Data from Emergency rooms in hospitals in DK covering 14% of the population

• Reports from the police (fire and accidents)• Report from the workers' safety agency (accidents

which cause more than one day off work)• Information from the press (newspaper etc)

Production of accident statistic

• For electric shock and arcs– 100 % of all fatal accidents

– serious accidents on work

– 14 % accidents by laymen

• For fires– all large fires (cost >150.000 €)

– approx. 20% of smaller fires

• The production of the documents costs 3 man years!

Main findings from statistic

• Calculation of the cost of fire and electric shock for the society– Registered electric fires cost 82 Mio € – Estimated electric fires (from insurance

companies and press) cost 400 Mio €– Electric shock and arcs cost 29 Mio €

• => In principle we should only look for products which have a risk of fire!!!

What causes the fires?

Luminaires12%

Household appliances

37%

Installations25%

Railways1%

Machinery7%

Utilities 3%

Radio, TV, computers15%

Low VoltageDirective

Ket

tles

Ow

ens,

stow

s

Tumbl

er d

ryer

s

Refrig

erat

ors a

nd fr

eeze

rs

Elect

rical

radi

ator

Toaste

rs

Hoo

vers

and

simila

r

Hot

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rs

Hea

ting

blan

kets

and

pads

Was

hing

mac

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Num

b er

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in y

e ar

2 000

Which household appliances cause fire ?

Other apparatus causing fires

Lumin

aire

sTV

-set

Mac

hine

ry fo

r

prod

uctio

n et

c.

Mac

hine

ry fo

r mai

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nce o

f bui

ldin

gsO

ther

appa

ratu

sRad

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c.Num

b er

o f f

i re s

in y

e ar

2 000

Reasons for fire

Unknown37%

Loose connection7%

Wrong use of apparatus26%

Insulation10%

Old apparatus10%

Mist6%

Error in apparatus1%

Animals 3%

Fixed installations

MarketSurveillance

Information needed !!!!

Market Surveillance - basic elements

• A product is chosen

• Technical investigations

• Evaluation of the result in relation to LVD Article 2

• Decision of measures to be taken

• Formal notification

How to choose a product

• Purchase the product in a shop

• Request samples from manufacturer or importer

• Border control - custom co-operation (not regarding EU or EEA countries)

Technical investigations

• Visual inspection

• Request of EC-declaration of conformity

• Test by Notified Body

Metal lampholder

Lack of insulation

Risk of shock

Evaluation of the result

• LVD Article 2, Electrical equipment may be placed on the market only if– It is constructed in accordance with good

engineering practice in safety matters– It does not endanger the safety of persons,

domestic animals or property

• It must be proven that the product is dangerous - not only that it do not comply with standards

Decision of measures to be taken

• If the product is immediately dangerous /risk of fire or shock or mechanical risk– sales ban & withdrawal from consumers via

advertising in all major newspapers or in TV

• If the product is dangerous (one more foreseeable failure can make it immediately dangerous)– sales ban & withdrawal from retailer

15-20 per year in DK

30-50 per year in DK

• If measures are taken, Denmark Notifies the other EU and EEA Member States– 5-10 pages

including pictures...

Formal Notification

Formal notification (pictures)

The same electronically controlled toaster, as it appears after an accident...

Toaster - as it is sold in the shop...

Typical safety problems

• Lack of cable anchorage• Insulation problems (too short distances - bad

quality of insulation)• Poor mechanical design (access to live parts

without use of tools)• Child appealing luminaires constructed to

230V• Problems with thermal switches

Most striking problems

Enforcement is not only Market Surveillance

• DK tends to use more and more information campaigns on ”what to do”

• DK co-operates with Industry, importers, retailers and other stakeholders (information meetings)

• DK uses many resources on standardisation (5 man years and 1,5 Mio € per year for external help and translation of standards)

Achievements of Market Surveillance

• Looking into ”other risks” than fire and electric shock (mechanical risk and risk of hot surfaces of electrical consumer products)

• Eliminating the most dangerous products with regard to fire and electric shock

• Feedback to standardisation dept. and information dept.

• Looking into ”other risks” than fire and electric shock (mechanical risk and risk of hot surfaces of electrical consumer products)

• Eliminating the most dangerous products with regard to fire and electric shock

• Feedback to standardisation dept. and information dept.

Improvements in the practices

• More targeted and less random Market Surveillance

• Common projects with other countries

• Co-operation with custom authorities

• Use of notifications made by other countries

Information exchange between Member States

DK notifi-cation

Paper copy

Denmark

Sweden Finland

Germany France

Italy

Spain….

Electronic version

LVD ADCO

• Member states meets twice every year

• Discussion on measures taken

• Alignment of decisions

• Coordination with the Commission

• Networking

Typical distribution of productsTypical distribution of Article 9 notifications

Householdappliances

Luminairies

other

Origin of manufacturer for products

Typical distribution of origin of manufacturer

Manufactured in EU

Manufactured in Asia

Not identified

Improvements in the procedures

• Intensive use of electronic tools– internet for tracing of products and manufacturers

– Databases for comparison of products and shortcomings found

– 100% electronic in-house document handling

– seek to communicate electronically with all co-operating partners

• Use of different testhouses to find best practice and save money

Procedural shortcomings

• At national level we have 5 levels of intervention depending of how severe the risk is.

• At European level there is only one level of intervention (=Notification under Article 9) and according to LVD, Member States are obliged to notify if measures are taken to limit the free circulation of goods.

Where to find more information

• Electrical safety:http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/electr_equipment/lv/index.htm

• Standards:http://www.cenelec.org and http://www.iec.ch

• Danish Authorities:http://www.elraadet.dk