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Standards
Safe breathing at the workplace in Germany is ensured by the Occupational Health and Safety Law laid down in 1996.

The minimum requirement for the protecting of employees' health must be implemented in national legislation of all EC Member States based on the EC Treaty.

The German Occupational Safety and Health Act regulates occupational safety and health in Germany in accordance with the EC Framework Directive 89/391/EEC. It applies to all workers at all workplaces irrespective of the type of work done.

The most important topics covered by German Occupational Safety and Health Act are:
  • Hazards and risk analysis at the workplace
  • Determination of suitable counteracting measures for the protection of employees
  • Training employees on respiratory protection topics
  • Monitoring occupational health and safety measures

In addition to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, there are other EC Framework Directives such as 89/655/EEC on the use of work materials or 89/656/EEC and 89/686/EEC covering the requirements for personal protection equipment which have been implemented including laws or ordinances derived from them.

When introducing a respiratory protection program in your company, in addition to the Occupational Health and Safety Law, you also need to observe the following laws and their related ordinances:

  • Law on Safety at Work
  • Chemicals Act (Chemikaliengesetz, ChemG)
  • Equipment and Product Safety Act
  • Social Code (Sozialgesetzbuch)
  • Ordinance on the Equipment and Product Safety Act
  • Ordinance on Hazardous Substances (Gefahrstoffverordnung, GefStoffV)
  • Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health (Betriebssicherheitsverordnung)
  • Technical Rules for Operational Safety (Technische Regeln für Betriebssicherheit, TRBS)
  • User Ordinance for Personal Protection Equipment
  • Technical rules
  • Requirements of the employer's liability insurance association (Berufsgenossenschaft ), as specified in BGR 190, for example

In other European countries, European Framework Directives are regulated and monitored by other laws and standards, such as by the HSE in the United Kingdom. The contents of the English ordinances can be viewed at the Health & Safety Executive Website.

There are various directives outside the EU which also regulate the use of personal protection equipment. In the U.S. the use of filtering respiratory protective devices are governed by the standards and directives of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH). Fulfilling NIOSH standards is in turn monitored by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

Learn more about OSHA/NIOSH standards
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© Dräger Safety AG & Co. KGaA, 2008   Impressum     Legal Notices
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All Dräger products bear the CE mark and are approved in accordance with the respective standards for that product.

Dräger is certified according the Quality Management Standard DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 and the Environmental Management Standard DIN EN ISO 14001:2005.
In addition to European approval certification, many products also have additional approvals like the U.SNIOSH standard (42 CFR 84) or the Australian-New Zealand AS/NZS 1716 standard.