Conformity assessment and product safety - helpful links

Conformity assessment 

• This is the home page by the domain of Industry of the Directorate-General Enterprise of the Europe Commission. This page is an important starting point for the topic of harmonized standards.

  http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/index_en.htm

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• Lists of notified bodies, classified by Directive, as PDF files:
  

  http://ec.europa.eu/.../nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=directive.main

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• On this page, the Nationale Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers extensive information on conformance-assessment methods and standardisation procedures in the USA. Numerous links refer to further information:
  

  http://ts.nist.gov/standards/conformity/cainfo.cfm

Standardisation

• The KAN ("Commission on Occupational Safety and Standardization") was founded in 1994, in order to represent German occupational-safety interests, especially in the process of European standardization. The KAN?s Web site gives information on the Commission, and provides access to information about occupational safety and standardization. The full text of all KAN Reports (detailed studies on specialized topics) and the quarterly KANBRIEF can be downloaded. Furthermore, the KAN offers an extensive list of links relating to its field.
  http://www.nora.kan.de/en/
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• NoRA (the German acronym stands for "OSH standards search") is a tool which can be used free of charge to search for standards the content of which is relevant to occupational health and safety. NoRA offers ten different search fields; searches can be performed using general terms or OSH-related terms (to search for particular OSH aspects in standards). The database, which is updated and extended monthly, contains information on several thousand standards and draft standards. The full texts of the standards can be ordered directly (for a fee) from the list of search results.
  http://www.kan.de/nora

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• On this site organized jointly by CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI (European Technical Standards Institution), you will find information relating to the topic of harmonized standards. The corresponding Directives are listed, and it is possible to search for harmonized standards. The most recommendable starting point for information on harmonized standards.

  http://www.newapproach.org/

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• Reference list for harmonized standards: listing of the Directives on which harmonized standards are based, and links to information on the individual Directives (amendments, contact person in the Directorate-General, etc.), and listing of the harmonized standards based on the respective Directive (with titles and EN numbers).

  http://ec.europa.eu/../standardization/harmstds/reflist.html

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• The european standardisation body CEN provides on his website a list of harmonised A-, and B-standards related to the directives for machinery:
  ftp://ftp.cen.eu/cen/.../ENsonsafetyofmachinery.pdf

Accreditation / Designation

• The "Zentralstelle der Länder für Sicherheitstechnik (ZLS)" is the German body for designation of notified bodies and bodies which award the GS-mark:

  http://www.zls-muenchen.de

• The "DAkkS Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH" is the German body for accreditiation of conformity assessment bodies (testing and medical laboratories, inspection bodies, certification bodies).
  http://www.dakks.de