Safe products

Safe work depends on safe work equipment, which is why the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA) promotes the design of safe products and publishes product alerts in its Dangerous Products in Germany (Gefährliche Produkte in Deutschland) database.

Broken Pliers serve as an example of an unsafe product
© Uwe Völkner, Fotoagentur FOX

Both at work and in our everyday lives, we use a huge range of widely different consumer products and technical equipment.

Our safety and health rely on mature products that are well thought through, properly tested, and as inherently safe and user-friendly as possible.

The Product Safety Act

In Germany, this aim - work equipment and product safety - is supported above all by the transposition of the various European directives and regulations on technical products in the Product Safety Act (Produktsicherheitsgesetz, ProdSG) and the implementing provisionsunder it, which govern the safety requirements of products from toys to heavy machinery.

Dangerous product alerts

BAuA publishes product recalls, product alerts, compulsory measures, and other information about individual dangerous products in its Dangerous Products in Germany database. The relevant data come from the Safety Gate, the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products, for which BAuA is Germany’s national Contact Point. This system allows information gathered by the Member States about dangerous or potentially dangerous consumer products to be exchanged at the European level.

Built-in safety

BAuA seeks to ensure safety is already taken into account during the design of work equipment. It identifies limit values, indicators, and measurement and assessment methods that are useful for this purpose and are also drawn on for the formulation of standards. Safety and health-related requirements are integrated directly into the digital tools used for modern product development, meaning these factors are actually given consideration during the design process.

Product safety in the digital world of work

The ways people interact with smart products and equipment are exceptionally complex - especially as far as their implications for product safety are concerned. It is therefore necessary to clarify manufacturers’ ethical, social, and legal responsibilities when they create adaptive, artificially intelligent systems. BAuA’s objectives are to ensure smart end devices meet product safety standards too and there is a secure legal environment for manufacturers and users alike. At the same time digital body dimension data (virtual anthropometry) can make safe product design more efficient and more precise. BAuA develops concepts and computer-based methods with which these data can be exploited to design products safely - especially by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Key Topics

For this purpose, we will be pleased to provide you with useful working aids and materials.

Research Projects

Project numberF 2389 StatusCompleted Project 3D printers - will users become manufacturers?

To the Project

Research completed

Project numberF 2390 StatusCompleted Project Data mining technologies - Subproject identification of accidents involving products

To the Project

Research completed

Project numberF 2395 StatusCompleted Project Further development and modernisation of the teaching concept on product safety for university education (PROSUmEr)

To the Project

Research completed

Publications

Search results

Legal Opinion on the Role of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as a National Contact Point under the Market Surveillance Act

baua: Report 2024

This legal opinion contains an in-depth examination of the tasks and powers of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and …

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What next for PPE?

Article 2024

The complete article "What next for PPE?" can be purchased at the Website of the Journal "IOSH Magazine", Issue 1/2, pp. 38-40.

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Ensure safe-to-use chemicals, materials and products

baua: Fokus 2022

With the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability the European Union provides an important basis for the implementation of the …

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Legal framework for the deployment of autonomous and AI systems

baua: Fokus 2022

The use of industrial machines with AI-based algorithms seems to be possible. However, the impact of AI systems on the safety of …

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Utilizing Class Separation Distance for the Evaluation of Corruption Robustness of Machine Learning Classifiers

Article 2022

Robustness is a fundamental pillar of Machine Learning (ML) classifiers, substantially determining their reliability. Methods …

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Alerts on the Safety Gate European rapid alert system - options for affected economic operators

baua: Fokus 2021

Safe products are vital to consumers' safety and health on the European Union (EU) internal market. In Germany, the aim of …

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Legal framework for making available autonomous and AI systems

Report 2021

The goal of the project presented here was to identify necessary changes to existing legal regulations such as the product …

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Safe machines with - or despite - artificial intelligence

Article 2021

In April, the European Commission produced a proposal not only for a regulation governing artificial intelligence, but also for …

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3D printing: Practical principles on product safety and regulatory framework

baua: Report 2019

The use of 3D printers for creating three-dimensional products (additive manufacturing) has become widespread and evolving in …

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Development and modernisation of the teaching concept for Product Safety in University Education (PROSUmEr)

baua: Report 2019

Designing products, such as machines, in line with safety and health requirements can contribute significantly to avoiding …

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