Market surveillance on electrical equipment in Denmark

1
Market surveillance on electrical equipment in
Denmark

• UNECE FORUM ON MARKET SURVEILLANCE
• Session II Practical experiences when
  implementing market surveillance on sectoral
  level
• II.1 Household electrical goods29th October -
  Geneva
• Jan Roedjan.roed_at_elraadet.dk
• Head of Market Surveillance and Standardisation
• Danish Electricity Council

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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

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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)

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Market Surveillance in Denmark

• Ministry of Economic and Enterprises
• The Electricity Council

Market surveil-lance
Instal-lations
Autho-risation
Utility grid
Standar-disation
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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/manufactur
  er)
• Random inspection
• A notification under article 9 or via the RAPEX
  system from another EU Member State

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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)

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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 gt150.000 )
• approx. 20 of smaller fires
• The production of the documents costs 3 man years!

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

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What causes the fires?
Installations 25
Household appliances 37
Railways 1
Machinery 7
Utilities 3
Luminaires 12
Radio, TV, computers 15
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Which household appliances cause fire ?
Number of fires in year 2000
Kettles
Toasters
Owens, stows
Hot air heaters
Electrical radiator
Tumbler dryers
Hoovers and similar
Washing machines
Refrigerators and freezers
Heating blankets and pads
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Other apparatus causing fires
Number of fires in year 2000
TV-set
Radio etc.
Luminaires
Machinery for production etc.
Other apparatus
Machinery for main- tenance of buildings
12
Reasons for fire
Wrong use of apparatus 26
Unknown 37
Old apparatus 10
Mist 6
Error in apparatus 1
Loose connection 7
Animals 3
Insulation 10
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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

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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)

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Technical investigations

• Visual inspection
• Request of EC-declaration of conformity
• Test by Notified Body

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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

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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

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Formal Notification

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

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Formal notification (pictures)
The same electronically controlled toaster, as it
appears after an accident...
Toaster - as it is sold in the shop...
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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

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Most striking problems
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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)

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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.

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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

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Information exchange between Member States
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LVD ADCO

• Member states meets twice every year
• Discussion on measures taken
• Alignment of decisions
• Coordination with the Commission
• Networking

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Typical distribution of products
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Origin of manufacturer for products
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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

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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.

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Where to find more information

• Electrical safetyhttp//europa.eu.int/comm/enter
  prise/electr_equipment/lv/index.htm
• Standardshttp//www.cenelec.org and
  http//www.iec.ch
• Danish Authoritieshttp//www.elraadet.dk