INFO SHEETS > REGULATIONS
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when diving
PPE course
Find a course on diving PPE in PPSX and PDF formats (free access, upon registration).
Bathyfolages
Find the complete file on PPE in Bathyfolages n°9 (free access upon registration)
Synthesis
European regulation EU 2016/425, of direct and mandatory application within the member states of the European Union, concerns thedesign and manufacturingPersonal Protective Equipment (PPE Design).
He makes theCE marking required, which allows the free movement of this equipment within the EU.
EU Regulation 2016/425 requires EU Member States not to obstruct the provision of compliant PPE (“CE marking”):1. Member States shall not prevent, for aspects covered by this Regulation, the making available on the market of PPE which complies.(section 7).
Article 6, however, defines a range of freedom of action for States: “This Regulation does not affect the right of Member States to establish, in particular in the context of the implementation of Directive 89/656/EEC, requirements concerning the use of PPE, provided that these requirements do not affect the design of PPE which is placed on the market in accordance with this Regulation. "
This is how French regulations have used these adaptation faculties to require management sheets for certain PPE (not all those which must be CE marked) when they are loaned or rented.
Depending on the target audience, these PPE are listed:
• in the sports code (practitioners and supervisors,PPE Sport-Leisure or EPI-SL);
• in the labor code (employed hyperbaric workers,Work PPE).
1. PPE Design: mandatory CE marking
Regulatory source : EU regulation 2016/425.
Scope: all the member states of the European Union.
Domain concerned: the design and manufacture of Personal Protective Equipment (diving: regulators, pressure gauges, vests, diving suits, masks, rebreathers, hookahs, taps). Diving tank barrels must also be CE marked but under the European regulation on pressure equipment (EU regulation 2014/68).
concerned public(scope): Designers and manufacturers.
Obligation : CE markingPPE intended to bedistributed, sold, loaned or rentedwithin the European Union.
2. Management sheet for EPI-Sport Loisirs diving masks(EPI-SL)
Regulatory source: French Sports Code.
Scope: sport-leisure practice in France.
Equipment concerned :diving masksloaned or rented.
Art. A322-176referring to theannex III-26 who list by nameand in a wayexhaustive* THEpersonal protective equipment subject to the provisions of the sports code, thus specifying the categories of PPE defined inAnnex III-3.
* There is therefore no need to seek to interpret otherwise what the PPE-SL could be.
concerned public(field of application): practitioners and supervisors (art. R322-27).
Obligation: management sheet for each mask loaned or rented (art. A322-177, annex III-26, Annex III-27, art. R322-37), kept for 3 years after the equipment has been discarded or taken out of stock (art. A322-177), communicated at their request to users and agents responsible for control (art. R322-37).
Information :
A more general obligation arises from theart. A322-81of the sports code:The underwater equipment and nautical equipment used by divers are regularly checked and properly maintained.
Debate :
The obligation to have a management sheet for loaned or rented diving masks is unanimously judged by the diving community to be oversized and unsuitable (the mask is removed underwater, from the first learning stages, which does not correspond in no way to the logic of PPE). This obligation should be removed.
3. Management sheet for PPE at work
Regulatory source: French Labor Code.
Scope: hyperbaric work in France.
Equipment concerned: respiratory devices (regulators and associated accessories,art. R4461-21) and equipment defined as PPE on the job description (art. R.4461-10).
concerned public(scope of application): employee or trainee (part 4 of the Labor Code, Health and safety at work, scope of application, art.L4111-1 and L4111-5) placed under the authority of the employer (subordination link).
Obligation: Management sheet for each PPE loaned to an employee, kept for 3 years after the equipment is scrapped or taken out of stock (art.R4313-16 and decree of October 22, 2009, NOR: MTST0922610A).
The PPE made available to the employee must be made free of charge (art. R4323-95).
The employer has an obligation to inform the employee (art. R4323-104).
The employer has the obligation to give instructions for use to the employee (art. R4323-105).
The employer has an obligation to train the employee (art. R4323-106).
Exemption: possible, only for employed diving instructors (not for other categories of hyperbaric workers) if they use their own equipment (art.R322-43of the sports code).
What controls?
In general regarding diving equipment, even beyond PPE, an inspector can therefore, subject to his responsibilities according to his body:
Check the CE marking of loaned or rented PPE (EU regulation 2016/425) and the CE marking of diving tanks that are not PPE (EU regulation 2014/68).
Check the mask management sheets (PPE-SL) that can be loaned or rented to practitioners and supervisors.
Check the management sheets for PPE, registered in the labor code (regulators) or defined in the job description and loaned to workers-employees, in associative clubs as in commercial structures as long as at least one employee is declared (and if the derogatory measure has not been chosen).
Check,without being able to require the restrictive formalism of management sheets, that the equipment loaned or rented to practitioners and supervisors (apart from the mask, PPE-SL and PPE lent to employees) is regularly checked and properly maintained, in accordance with theart. A322-81of the sports code.For all diving equipment, inspectors can easily check the condition of the equipment by simple visual observation (regulator, wetsuits, vests, masks, snorkels) or functional test (regulator mounted on a tank, pressure gauge).
Check periodic inspections and requalifications of diving cylinders and associated valves under theorder of November 20, 2017and someBSERR decision no. 15-106 of December 8, 2015(TIV diet).
Difficulties encountered during checks on PPE
The difficulties of interpretation with inspectors in charge of controls, which occurred in 2017, 2018 and 2019, are due to the fact that some of them want to extend the provisions of the Labor Code:
• all equipment on the list of PPE that must be CE marked according to EU Regulation 2016/425 (rather than only equipment mentioned in the Labor Code);
• to all practitioners and supervisors (rather than just employees).
They believe that any equipment designed and manufactured as PPE (CE marking) should, for this reason alone, follow the management sheet procedure provided for in the Labor Code for its monitoring, while wanting to extend the provisions of the Labor Code to all consumers under ageneral security obligation(maintaining PPE in good condition).
In the absence of texts produced in support of this thesis (which would have serious consequences if the labor code were to apply to all consumers!), the acceptability of its application is made difficult on the ground, opening the way to numerous disputes, with only the sovereign assessment of the courts making it possible to decide the question.
Without reaching that point, it would be desirable for the Central Administration to make a reasoned decision.
Failing this, the matter should be referred to the Council of State.
Several lawyers have sent letters to this effect to differentprefectures, in the regions where these controls were carried out and are contested.
The Defender of rightswas also seized (“The Defender of Rights ensures respect for rights and freedoms” – article 71-1 of the Constitution).
To be continued …
PPE summary sheet
Download a summary sheet on diving PPE.
Detailed note on PPE
01/28/2019 – The latest on the issue, in a single PDF file.
Open letter to the FFESSM
09/15/2018 – In response to the FFESSM note on PPE.
© Extract fromPleasure Diving booksby Alain Foret at Editions GAP.
Any reproduction prohibited on any medium whatsoever without the written consent of the publisher and the author.