Commercial Information Circulars

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e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/2/12

20 July 2009

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 370/2009

European Union (EU)* : Safety Requirements for Personal Music Players

The European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Decision setting out the safety requirements to be met by European standards for personal music players. Details are set out in the Commission Decision 2009/490/EC (the Decision). The Decision can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:161:0038:0039:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2. The Decision establishes the safety requirements for ensuring that, under normal usage conditions, exposure to sound from personal music players, including mobile phones with a music playing function, does not pose a risk to hearing. Under the Decision, personal music players shall be designed and manufactured in a manner that under reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, they are inherently safe and do not caused hearing damage. Particular safety requirements include:

   • -Exposure to sound levels shall be time limited to avoid hearing damage. At 80 dB(A), exposure time shall be limited to 40 hours/week. At 89 dB(A), exposure time shall be limited to 5 hours/week. For other exposure levels, a linear intra- and extrapolation applies. One shall also takes into account the dynamic range of sound and the use of the products; and
   • -Personal music players shall provide adequate warnings on the risks involved in using the device, the ways of avoiding them and information to users in cases where exposure poses a risk of hearing damage.

3. Once the standard is available and being published its reference in the Official Journal, personal music players designed and manufactured in compliance with the standard will be presumed to conform the general safety requirement of Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety.

ENQUIRIES

4. For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Peggy LEUNG)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.