24/11/2014
The media just can't help themselves, it seems. Give them a juicy "
EU red tape" story and they're salivating all over it, lapping up the details without once thinking about what they are writing.
In this case, we're getting an orchestrated whinge from Conservative business minister Matthew Hancock, who has picked up on
Directive 89/686/EC on personal protective equipment (PPE), which earlier this year was scheduled for revision by
COM(2014) 186 final.
In the old Directive, a requirement was set out for PPE to conform to specific performance standards, usually promulgated by CEN or ISO, to ensure that it was able to carry out its esignated function.
Since the Directive applied to health and safety at work, items intended for "private" use, such as household rubber gloves, and oven gloves, were exempted from any standards. But, as the COM final points out, these items are widely used in the work environment. Having some items with a compulsory performance standard, and others without, gave rise to some confusion.
Thus, not unreasonably, these "household" gloves are to be included in the revised legislation and will have to conform with minimum standards. In this case, they will be ISO standards, which are applicable worldwide.
It is in fact the case that huge quantities of domestic-grade rubber gloves are used in the work environment â anything from housemaids in hotels, to restaurant kitchens, schools, hospitals and the rest.
Personally, although I'd never given it much thought, I was a little surprised to find there was no standard â which perhaps explains why quality is so variable. In my contract cleaning days, we could sometime go through four or five pairs on a night â while others seemed to last forever.
Furthermore, the rubber gloves aren't just used for washing up â they're worn for light-duty oven cleaning, and if a tear in the glove lets caustic through, it can really hurt. Simple jobs such as using metal polish or some floor cleaners can end up with painful dermatitis it the gloves don't do their job.
Thus, I'm really not going to storm the barricades if someone wants to make minimum standards for household gloves compulsory. And if they last longer, and do their job, a small price increment is not going to be a problem.
That, though, has not stopped Hancock going completely over the top. In an almost comedic fashion, he screeches that: "This EU power grab for our kitchen sinks is completely bonkers. It would place a huge weight on businesses who are trying to serve their customers".
He then goes on to say, "These over-zealous proposals underscore the need for EU reform and why we must fight Brussels over-regulation to get the best deal for Britain".
This is so overblown as to be laughable. It points to the almost complete lack of perspective on the EU issue. This is a government which is quite happy to go along with the EU on cutting CO2 emissions at an overall cost of £1.3 trillion just to decarbonise the electricity supply, but is then going completely over the top about a largely sensible idea to regulate the quality of rubber gloves.
Even the claims about "the huge weight" on businesses are vastly overblown. The price for a pair of gloves varies from about 80p to about £3.00, so careful buying for most purchasers will avoid any increased costs in what is a highly competitive market.
But it is silliness such as this which is completely poisoning the debate over the EU. Frankly, issues such as these don't matter at all. But we get both the politicians and the media hyperventilating over such things, and missing the main events.
If we were to leave the EU, yet stay in the EEA, this new regulation would still apply, but in or out of the EU or any associated organisation, if we chose to regulate household gloves, we would end up with the same standards.
What we really need to do is to get to the substance of the problem here, and define the issues that really matter. Otherwise, we end up so bogged down in petty detail that we'll never be able to find our way out of the labyrinth.