Archived News Article
Green light for the prEN 17191 – Seating for Children Standard
Now it is possible to send the prEN 17191, the standard for children’s seating, for formal vote in the coming weeks.
This standard was developed under an EU mandate and consequently is going to be included in the Official Journal for the General Product Safety Regulations. As now that all mandated standards must go through a process of checking by an external person called HAS Consultant, to ensure that the standard covers all the hazards included in the mandate. Inevitably this process has been delaying the progress of the standard. HAS consultant assigned to this standard had made 50 comments and asked questions concerning the content of this standard in relation to the mandate.
Today, a small group of experts including FIRA International’s Senior Ergonomist, Levent Caglar met with the HAS consultant and had a very fruitful meeting. There was a good exchange of ideas and understanding of HAS consultant’s comments and the response of the Working Group (CEN TC 207 WG 2) to these comments. I am very pleased to say that these comments have been resolved amicably and only with minor changes to be incorporated into the current version of the draft EN 17191.
There were three key areas on which we had detailed discussions and arrived at a successful conclusion. It was agreed that:
- a) School chairs would continue to be excluded from the scope of EN 17191, as they are already covered by another European Standard (EN 1729-2)
- b) No additional requirements for chemical hazards would be added to the standard, but minor changes to be incorporated into the standard
- c) No additional flammability requirements (cigarette and match test) would be added to the standard, but additional information to be incorporated in the standard.
Next step is that the small group will report back to the Working Group (WG2) who will then incorporate the changes agreed into the standard. TC 207 secretariat will then should be able to send the final draft, FprEN 17191, for a formal vote in a very short period of time.
