PSNet, There has been a lot of good points made in this discussion.
I think that it is pretty clear that the American way is to give the responsibility to the lowest level - national, state, local, etc. - as much as possible. Invocation of the US National Electrical Code (which insists upon NRTL approval) is pushed down this way. The NEC does not differentiate between consumer, commercial and industrial equipment. The law establishes where it is applied. Another American way is to pass laws for just about anything, but don't put hardly any money into compliance - OSHA is an example of this in that they do not have any substantial ongoing compliance effort but seem to focus more on setting the blame after an accident. I have heard that the UK Health and Safety at Work folks visit every factory each year and ask what new equipment has been installed then review the Manufacturer's Declaration of Conformity for each piece of equipment. Perhaps someone there could comment on this. Finally, American lawyers are willing to help anyone push back on any requirement set down anywhere. Why not accept your responsibility and provide equipment that meets the intent of the requirement - NRTL listing. A novel idea, perhaps. :>) br, Pete Peter E Perkins, PE Principal Product Safety Engineer PO Box 23427 Tigard, ORe 97281-3427 503/452-1201 fone/fax p.perk...@ieee.org - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to emc-p...@ieee.org Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas emcp...@ptcnh.net Mike Cantwell mcantw...@ieee.org For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org David Heald: emc-p...@daveheald.com All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc