According to the Machinery Directive and the relevant horizontal standards, there is no doubt about the importance of considering ergonomic aspects in C-standards (standards giving provisions for specific machines). Nevertheless, the ergonomic content of standards has either been missing or poorly dealt with due to the lack of expertise in the standardisation technical groups.

A workshop on ergonomics was organised by CEN in October 1995, in order to improve the current situation. It was concluded that an "Ergonomics guide" would be a useful means of improving the ergonomic content of standards for machinery design.

The step by step approach used in the guide, based on the rules of machine safety standardisation laid down in EN 414 (rules for drafting and presentation of safety standards), has two main elements: it identifies and evaluates ergonomic risks generically and also provides a model for the use of B-standards for different ergonomic subject areas.

Two points stand out in conclusion to our technical work: Given the difficulties of estimating risks using a conventional approach, there is a need for active users' participation when integrating ergonomics in standards. The summary of available horizontal standards compiled in this guide shows that certain ergonomic aspects have either not been well covered or have been neglected completely.