Electrical Safety Products
Electrical Safety Products
Provincial legislation was proposed in Ontario as an attempt to control the rising counterfeit, unapproved and unsafe electrical products being introduced to the provincial marketplace.
Electrical Safety Products – Product Registry
Ontario’s electrical sheriff, the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) introduced a program where product manufacturers must register products being sold or intend on being sold in the province. This program, of course, helps track electrical products and if any action needs to be taken against any violators if deemed necessary. Through this program, ESA also planned to further its preventative and enforcement activities by keeping manufacturers and distributors accountable for unapproved electrical products being sold in the province. The latter reason gives law-abiding manufacturers a fair opportunity to sell their electrical products.
Electrical Safety Products – Why The Need For Change?
The Electrical Safety Authority extended its mandate with the Government of Ontario to included regulations on electrical safety products. Motivations effecting this change include:
- A lack of authority to encourage those involved with making or selling unsafe or unapproved electrical products to take corrective action where electrical safety risks exist;
- The number of unapproved electrical products being imported into Ontario;
- A lack of reporting within an appropriate time incidents involving electrical products to ESA;
- Limiting the domestic control on the supply chain of electrical products; and
- The overall effect of globalization on the provincial marketplace.
Overall, the effect was increasing the electrical safety risk in Ontario.
Electrical Safety Products – Regulation on Electrical Safety Products
Ontario Regulation 438/07: PRODUCT SAFETY, sets out the necessary regulation in regards to the handling of electrical safety and in regards to electrical product approval in Ontario.
The regulation intends to:
- Give up-to-date regulation to reduce the risk of electrical safety incidents caused from unsafe or unapproved electrical products;
- Provide safe market practices for electrical product distribution in Ontario;
- Establish clear regulatory requirements for manufacturers, distributors, certification agencies, importers, retailers and wholesalers of electrical products.
- Create an efficient and responsive legal system to appropriately respond to discovered unsafe or unapproved electrical products; and
- Promote compliance and increase enforcement.
Regulation 438/07 makes it clear that wholesalers, field evaluation agencies, importers, retailers, manufacturers, importers, distributors, and certification bodies have to report any defects in electrical equipment that can affect the public’s electrical safety or if these companies become aware of any serious electrical incident or accident.
