Certification requirements for PPE continue to grow

BSI has been testing and certifying Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for over 40 years. In this time, we’ve seen quite a number of changes from the introduction of CE marking in 1985 to the new requirements recently introduced in the UAE.

So what’s driving this trend? Regulatory authorities claim that the rise in international supply chains, globalization and the need to protect people, ensure product safety, maintain quality and ultimately build trust has never been greater. Local conformity assessment schemes can help them to do this.

However, manufacturers, distributors and exporters tell us that keeping on top of these “new rules” can be a challenge. What’s more, the risk of non-compliance has become an increasingly major concern in recent years, particularly for manufacturers with operations in multiple countries and jurisdictions.

The good news is that with over 100 years of industry experience our team of PPE certification experts can work with clients, no matter where they are located, to ensure they meet the needs of these conformity assessment schemes.

New rules for the UAE

For manufacturers, and importers or distributors of PPE to the UAE, there are new rules to be aware of. BSI is a notified body for ESMA (the Emirates Body for Standardization and Metrology) for provision of ECAS certification which is now mandated throughout the Emirates.

The ESMA certification schemes are implemented under Federal Law 28 and BSI are approved under the guidelines of the scheme to provide certification for the following categories of product:

Low voltage equipment and appliances
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Electrical water heaters
Restriction of hazardous substances’ regulations
Gas hobs and cooking ranges

Scope of the ESMA Regulation

‘All Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which is made/to be made available in the UAE market.’

This is a notified body service which will result in the application of the ESMA Mark for PPE by a manufacturer or importer. BSI is one of a select number of notified bodies, our registered office is as below, but you will still be working with the PPE team in the UK day to day:

BSI
Shop 12, Ground floor,
Sultan Business Centre
PO Box 26444
Oud Metha
Dubai
UAE (0015)

Email: esma@bsigroup.com
Mobile: 050 6501490
Landline: 043573779

Risk Classification

Risk Classification for the ESMA PPE regulation classifies equipment in the same way as the European PPE Regulation (EI) 2016/425, which is the following three Categories:

Category I – to protect users against minimal risks. This is a self-declaration category, with registration onto the ESMA database for export into the UAE, and supply the DOC for relevant standard to BSI and a Certificate will be issued.
Category II –risks other than those listed in Categories I and III. There are two options open, manufacturers can follow the mandatory ECAS route, or they may choose to follow the optional route of EQM as means as placing goods onto the market.
Category III - ‘exclusively the risks that may cause very serious consequences such as death or irreversible damage to health.’ The single route of compliance is the mandatory EQM route.

This is further broken down into product categories. BSI is notified by ESMA for the ECAS and EQM Modules for the following under the Notified Body identification number 0015:

Body protective clothing
Eye and face protection
Fall management equipment
Foot protection
Hand protection
Head protection
Hearing protection
Respiratory protection

This also aligns with our European PPE Regulation scope.

Routes to Compliance –

Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS)

Certificate validity is for 1 year
No factory assessment required
There is a limit to the number of models that can be listed on one certificate
Supporting test reports may not be more than 5 years old

Emirates Quality Mark (EQM)

Certificate validity is for 3 years
Factory assessment is required
There is no limit to the number of models listed on a certificate
If a product has not been changed, there is no limit to the age of a supporting test report

Whether you are a manufacturer, an importer or a distributor, our trusted team of experts can work with you to achieve your global market access needs and with Certification to ESMA access to the UAE markets.

BSI is ideally placed to support your market access needs. With offices worldwide, and as the UK National Standards Body, we work closely with many other notified agencies around the world to ensure our standards are recognized and accepted. Every year we work with thousands of organizations around the world to ensure they meet global access requirements.

We understand it can be difficult to keep up-to-date with regulatory frameworks, especially when they change. What’s more, what you need to do may vary from country to country. Our certification experts are here to work in partnership with you to access global markets.