Standardisation - one way for better protection of operators against pesticides

The use of pesticides is possibly connected with risks for the environment and for the bystanders, but also for the farmer himself. All possible risks must be diminished to acceptable levels by active technical means of reduction or at last protective equipment must secure the working conditions. Means of protection are machinery bound cabs or personal protective equipment (PPE). Classification and definition of types or categories of protection are classical tasks for standardisation. Since November 2009 the two parts of EN 15695 are in force defining four categories of cabs and introducing methods for testing. Concerning PPE, there exist EN and ISO standards for performance and testing respirators, gloves and partial body protection. But there is a lack for suits for which Germany created 2005 the DIN 32781, which was revised in 2010. At the present time ISO FDIS 27065 stands for formal vote, but some European countries are still critical because some important details do not follow their requirements sufficiently. Therefore writing an own CEN paper was agreed recently.