Guidelines for the development of safety-related standards for consumer products.
Product safety standards, issued by official standardization bodies, play an important part in consumer protection policy. Many of these standards exhibit considerable shortcomings, which limit their applicability and effectiveness. This paper deals with a number of problems in the development of safety standards, in particular for consumer products. Recently published guidelines for safety-related standards are discussed, and additional recommendations are developed. In addition to the traditional problems in standardization, attention is devoted to product information and the generalizability of test results. The analysis and recommendations in this paper do not only apply to standards, but also to other documents containing test methods for consumer products, e.g. for comparative testing, certification, and product development.
van Weperen
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Consumer Safety Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
D003257:Consumer Product Safety / Q000592:standards*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services