Conformity assessment systems are important because they provide confidence to buyers, sellers, consumers, and regulators that products, services, and systems meet specific requirements. This confidence helps assure that products such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have the required characteristics and that those characteristics are consistent. Workers are actually more likely to appropriately use PPE when they are confident that the equipment will provide the intended protections based on its conformance with appropriate standards. ANSI/ISEA 125-2014: American National Standard for Conformity Assessment for Safety and PPE provides a standardized conformity assessment system that can be used by suppliers, specifiers, users, and regulators when assessing safety and PPE.
What Does Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Include?
Here are some examples of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):
- Equipment for eye protection (e.g., safety goggles)
- Equipment for hearing protection (e.g., muffs, earplugs)
- Equipment for protection against falling from heights (e.g., harnesses, hard hats)
- Equipment for part or whole face protection (e.g., face shields, respirators)
- Equipment for hand and arm protection (e.g., gloves)
Conformity Assessment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
In the context of occupational health, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) conformity assessment is indispensable because this process ensures that PPE meets the highest standards of safety and effectiveness. Conformity assessment verifies that safety and PPE meets specified requirements. As such, assuring that PPE meets conformity assessment criteria is critical for protecting workers from known and unforeseen workplace hazards, such as from chemicals, electricity, or mechanical impacts.
What Is ANSI/ISEA 125?
ANSI/ISEA 125-2014 establishes criteria for conformity assessment of safety and personal protective equipment, which is sold with claims of compliance with product performance standards. Specific provisions in this American National Standard are described for:
- Qualification performance testing data collection and maintenance
- Periodic verification
- Substantiation of processes to maintain manufacturing quality
- Roles and responsibilities of suppliers, testing organizations, and certification organizations
ANSI/ISEA 125-2014 is intended as a resource that can be referenced by end user purchasers of products, who may include compliance to this standard as a requirement of a purchase contract with a supplier, by regulatory authorities having jurisdiction over workplace safety and health, or by product standard development committees to define their conformity assessment requirements for a particular product performance standard.
Conformity Assessment in ANSI/ISEA 125
ANSI/ISEA 125-2014 provides three levels of conformity assessment. For each level, there are requirements for initial and ongoing testing, quality management, corrective and preventive action, recordkeeping, and declaration of conformity. Where standards are specified for these processes, accreditation requirements are included. A supplier should use a conformity assessment system that complies with this standard to demonstrate that a product conforms to the requirements of a product performance standard to which the supplier is claiming conformance. Conformity assessment is therefore important because it helps consumers make purchasing decisions by providing confidence in the manufacturer’s claims about the product.
This standard does not attempt to assign a level of conformity assessment to any product, hazard, or work environment.
ANSI/ISEA 125-2014: American National Standard for Conformity Assessment for Safety and PPE is available on the ANSI Webstore.