American manufacturer of respiratory and personal protective equipment Scott Safety has announced to achieve Module B Certification from the British Standards Institution (BSI) after the PPE Directive 89/686EEC was updated with the PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425 in April 2017
According to BSI, Scott Safety was among the few companies to be awarded with these certificates due to its continuous commitment to product safety.
Mark Saxon, regulatory affairs manager at Scott Safety, commented, “Scott Safety products protect thousands of individuals each day, therefore ensuring that our products are tested and meet the new PPE Regulation ahead of the deadline is vital.”
Scott Safety, a business unit of Tyco, provides personal protective equipment and safety devices for fire-fighters, industrial workers, police squads, militaries, homeland security forces and rescue teams. The product line includes self-contained breathing apparatus, supplied air and air-purifying respirators, PPE, gas detection instruments, thermal imaging cameras and firefighter locators.
The new PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425 will be effective from 21 April 2018, which indicates that manufacturers, importers and distributors need to approve any new PPE product that is produced, imported or sold in the EU.
All existing PPE product approved to the PPE Directive must be transitioned to the new PPE Regulation and have Module B certification in place by 21 April 2019, to be able to continue manufacturing or shipping into the EU.
Being the first UK organisation to be appointed as a notified body to the new PPE Regulation, BSI has the authority to issue post-dated Model B certificates to the manufactures to help them prepare for the change in next year.
Some of the key changes to the updated PPE regulation include provisions for the distributors and importers, changes to module names and product categorisation and mandatory declaration of conformity with each product.
The EU Type Examination certificates will be valid for five years.
