Decision 2009/490 - 2009/490/EC: Commission Decision of 23 June 2009 on the safety requirements to be met by European standards for personal music players pursuant to Directive 2001/95/EC - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 161/38

Directive 2001/95/EC provides for European standards to be established by European standardisation bodies. Such standards should ensure that products satisfy the general safety requirement of the Directive.

Under Directive 2001/95/EC a product is presumed safe, as far as the risks and risk categories covered by national standards are concerned, when it conforms to voluntary national standards transposing European standards.

Depending on the type of personal music player, its safety is covered either by Directive 2001/95/EC, Directive 1999/5/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 1999 on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recognition of their conformity (2) or Directive 2006/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the harmonisation of the laws of Member States relating to electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (3). Directive 2001/95/EC covers portable music players with no integrated communication function.

Directive 1999/5/EC and Directive 2006/95/EC make reference to European harmonised standard EN 60065:2002 ‘Audio, video and similar electronic apparatus — Safety requirements’. Given the ever more blurred borderline between consumer electronics and information technology equipment, this standard is intended to merge with EN 60950 ‘Information technology equipment — Safety — Part 1: General requirements’ into a new standard EN 62368.

The standards currently prescribe no maximum sound limit nor require any specific labelling in respect of noise emissions but require that a statement be put in the instruction manual to warn of the adverse effects of exposure to excessive sound level.

The European Commission requested the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) to assess the potential health risks posed by personal music players and mobile phones with a music playing function, given their widespread use and the growing number of people who are continuously exposed to sound levels exceeding the limits at workplace (80 decibels). SCENIHR concluded in its Opinion (4) that listeners risk both hearing and non-hearing problems. In particular, listeners risk permanent hearing loss if they use a personal music player for more than 40 hours per week at high volume settings (exceeding 89 dB(A)) for at least five years. Such usage patterns have now become quite common, especially among children and adolescents.

The safety requirement for personal music players should be drawn up under the provisions of Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2001/95/EC, with the aim to request the standardisation bodies to develop a standard that prevents the risk of hearing damage from exposure to sound from such devices, according to the procedure laid down in Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (5). The reference of the standard adopted should be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, in accordance with Article 4(2) of...