The ISO – International Organization for Standardization develops ISO/IEC Guides to provide guidance to technical committees for the preparation of standards, often on broad fields or topics. Most guides deal with specialist issues, such as consumer needs, when writing standards. Many are also useful for people not involved in standards work as the advice they contain can be generally applied to their subject areas.
ISO/IEC Guide 51 Safety aspects – Guides for their inclusion in standards is under revision. This guide assists standards writers to recognise and include safety aspects in their standards. It is applicable to any safety concern related to people, property or the environment and any combination of these via a risk reduction approach arising from the use of products, processes or services. The last revision was completed in 1999 and significant advances in the approach to risk have been made since then.
Robyn Easton is the CFA representative on the committee revising the Guide via her work as the co-chair of the Product Safety Working Group on ISO COPOLCO – Committee on consumer policy.