Risk Assessments and Safe Machinery (eBook)

This book describes the prerequisites for the placing on the market and the safe use of machinery in compliance with the relevant EU Directives, especially the Machinery Directive 2006/42. It provides readers with high-level knowledge concerning the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSR) that machinery must fulfill. The approach and principles of the Machinery Directive were most recently made worldwide acknowledged in the ILO code of practice on safe machinery, released in 2013. The book addresses that code, as well as providing valuable insight into other EU Product and Workplace legislation.

Focusing on the key aspect of safe machinery, the 'machinery safety risk assessment', which allows readers to better understand the more difficult aspects of risk assessments, the book equips readers to tackle problems at the manufacturing stage and in different use scenarios, introducing them to risk reduction techniques and functional safety aspects.

Torben Jespen received his Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and holds a Bachelor's degree in International Trade from Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

He spent 5 years as an Assistant Professor at the DTU's Institute of Chemical Industry - teaching chemical process and reaction engineering - and 25 years in different positions at the Confederation of Danish Employers, where he provided assistance to Member Organizations and Companies concerning occupational health and safety matters, especially with aspects related to EU legislation.

Torben has over 9 years' experience as a Technical Adviser at a globally operating Danish engineering company and industrial plant equipment supplier company, and in the course of his 20 years as an advisory expert to the European Commission regarding Product and Workplace health and safety legislation, he served as the chairman of several advisory groups.

He has also held the vice-chair and employer spokesperson positions at the European Agency on Occupational Safety and Health (European OSHA) in Bilbao, Spain, and has been actively involved in several ILO activities, including the elaboration of Conventions, Recommendations and Guidelines, such as those on 'occupational safety and health management systems'.