Eurofins Personal Protective Equipment Bimonthly Bulletin (July-August 2021)
EUROPE
Harmonised standards for hearing protectors
On 21 July 2021, The European Commission published the following decision related to Personal Protective equipment:
Perfluorinated carboxylic acids restricted under REACH Annex XVII Entry 68
On 5 August 2021, the European Union (EU) published Regulation (EU) No 2021/1297, which updated Annex XVII of REACH. Certain perfluorocarboxylic acids (C9-C14 PFCAs), their salts and C9-C14 PFCA-related substances will be banned from being placed on the market or used in most applications from 25 February 2023 onwards.
The following table summarises the most recent standard updates and upcoming dates of withdrawal (non-exhaustive):
FRANCE
Surgical masks claiming a biocidal activity
The ANSM (Agence nationale de sécutiré du medicament et ds produits de santé) and the DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des frauds) have published several notices related to surgical masks , due to the emergence of masks claiming to have biocidal activity, as a reminder of the main considerations for placing these devices on the market:
UK
UK Government extends UKCA marking deadline
On 24 August 2021, the UK government announced that businesses have been given an additional year to apply the UKCA marking to their products, businesses now have until 1 January 2023 to apply the UKCA marking to their products.
Consultation to change the PPER legislation
During summer 2021, the UK Health and Safety Executive opened a public consultation about Amendments to the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (PPER) with the aim of understanding and extending the scope under the PPER.
Below you will find a monthly summary of product recalls and alerts in Europe (Source “RAPEX”).
Europe
RAPEX (European Commission Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products – Alerts reported by EU national authorities).
US
Between 21 June and 20 August 2021, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) published the following recalls.