Hi All, With the remarks about this topic needing to be discussed in IEC and industry committees as well as between professionals, I think it may be time to inject that there are local Product Safety Societies (or the IEEE versions) that were formed for this particular reason. Perhaps the Engineers that sit on these TAG and TC committees should join up and take an ACTIVE role in these groups. With their participation in local safety societies, the entire industry will be represented and can be considered to have a voice in the development of standards and the considerations therein. I am not so sure that the NRTL's and Notified bodies should have the only voice in this process.
Scott Barrows NPSS geor...@lexmark.com wrote: > John, > > Allow me to comment further on this issue. I seem to remember > a saying that goes "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." > By the same token, I have always expressed within my area of > influence that the truest test of our internal ITE safety > policies, practices and processes is field history. > > We all know that standards, like many other sets of knowledge, > evolve from errors over time. Another saying that makes this > point is "Success comes from experience. Experience comes from > failure." Overall, I believe the ITE industry has a superb safety > record, given the exponential growth of this industry from corporate > uses to homes, dorm rooms, etc. > > Hundreds of people are killed or injured every day in the use of > various products, e.g. vehicles, farm equipment, firearms (hunting > accidents), aircraft, etc. The majority of these are due to > operator error and/or poor judgement. The more complex products > are the ones more likely to develop a defect that could lead to > deaths, e.g. aircraft. > > In the eight plus years I have been in product safety, I am not > aware of a reported serious injury or death from the intended > use or misuse of an ITE product. This does not mean there have > been none, but it does mean that ITE is not a significant cause > of injury or death. This is a result of fairly sound standards, > common sense, experience, and due diligence in maintaining the > original certified design of each product. > > We probably all know of improvements we would make in this > process if we got to be "king for a day". Most of us handle > these as internal requirements beyond the imposed external > requirements. The way we define and account for the use of safety > critical parts is one small aspect of a much more complex series > of processes leading to protecting ITE users from harm. > > George Alspaugh > > These are personal opinions only. > > ------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety > Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. > > Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ > > To cancel your subscription, send mail to: > majord...@ieee.org > with the single line: > unsubscribe emc-pstc > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org > Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org > Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org > > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old > messages are imported into the new server. ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: pstc_ad...@garretson.org Dave Heald davehe...@mediaone.net For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server.
