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
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
air h
eate
rs
Hea
ting
blan
kets
and
pads
Was
hing
mac
hine
s
Num
b er
o f f
i re s
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
n-
tena
nce o
f bui
ldin
gsO
ther
appa
ratu
sRad
io et
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
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