4 General Requirement
4 General Requirement: Appliances shall be constructed so that in normal use, they function safely so as to cause no danger to persons or surroundings, even in the event of carelessness that may occur in normal use.
In general, this principle is achieved by fulfilling the relevant requirements specified in this standard and compliance is checked by carrying out all the relevant tests.
In the blog “How to understand the seventh paragraph of INTRODUCTION” we have already explained that the standard specifies requirements for the following five points: protection against the risk of electric shock, protection against touching moving parts, protection against thermal injury, protection against the risk of fire, and protection against the risk of chemical and radiation.
In “How to understand the ninth paragraph of INTRODUCTION” and “How to understand the eighth paragraph of INTRODUCTION” we provided explanations regarding normal use and foreseeable misuse.
The general principle is straightforward: compliance with the standard’s requirements is deemed to cause no danger to persons or surroundings, even in the event of foreseeable careless behavior during normal use.
As previously mentioned, the concept of safety is relative, not absolute. When disputes arise regarding the interpretation of the standard, or when understanding of the standard or the concept of safety becomes unclear, judgments can be directly based on the requirements outlined in Clause 4 — meaning that conformity with the standard is considered equivalent to ”no danger”.