3.13 Health and safety

Protecting the health or safety of persons who operate or work on or use services supplied by means of a telecommunications network or a facility is one of the four ACMA’s Heads of Power under s376 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

Requirements for health and safety as applied under the Heads of Power to CE are specified in the following Standards:

  • AS/NZS 62368.1 Audio/video, information and communication technology equipment Safety requirements
  • AS/CA S004 Voice frequency performance requirements for Customer Equipment  and AS/CA S042.1 Requirements for connection to an air interface of a Telecommunications Network — Part 1: General (specifically for acoustic safety).
  • AS/CA S008 Requirements for customer cabling products (products within this category are not subject to AS/NZS 62368.1 except for those parts of AS/NZS 62368.1 referenced by S008).
  • AS/CA S009 Installation requirements for customer cabling (Wiring rules).

The IEC 62368-1 Audio/video, information and communication technology equipment - Part 1: Safety requirements Standard was originally published in 2010. The scope of this Standard covers the scopes of the two IEC standards that it replaced in 2015, IEC 60065 Audio, Video and Similar Electronic Apparatus – Safety Requirements and IEC 60950-1. IEC 62368-1 is technology-neutral and performance-based, rather than based on prescribed constructions like the two standards it is replacing. It employs a new form of safety testing, Hazard Based Safety Engineering (HBSE), which evaluates hazards that can be transferred to end users and how technology products safeguard against these potential dangers.

The Australian Standard AS/NZS 62368.1 is based on IEC 62368-1, with national deviations, and is  called up under the ACMA’s Telecommunications Labelling Notice.

Optical fibre safety is currently addressed by the above Standards under Australian telecommunications legislation.