Article

2004-04-14 Europe

Report Predicts High Costs for EU Chemical Assessment Rules

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut bskolaut@hotmail.com 2004-04-14 4:29:52 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Back in the early 90's I did some technical work for one of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) working groups that was drafting an industrial standard for networked sensors (for the non-technically inclined, this was a scheme for allowing pressure and temperature sensors and such stuff to be connected by a sort of "baby Ethernet" to control computers in an industrial plant).

The work involved a lot of contact with European engineers and technocrats, and it left me with one overwhelming impression: Europeans, especially the French, absolutely worship rules and regulations. I didn't have very much to do with the standards drafting itself, only technical support of the effort; but I saw enough to convince me that there was something either deeply cultural or psychological going on with them: they seemed to want to cast everything possible in concrete, even technical aspects that weren't relevant to the work at hand. It was almost as if they were trying to eliminate anything which could possibly give rise to competition or innovation.

Overall, I found it very disturbing. And in light of that experience, I was not at all surprised by the encyclopedic nature of the European Constitution that was proposed a few months back. The continentals seem to have a horror of self-governance, perferring to be ruled by absolute authority.

Posted by Dave D. 2004-04-14 5:19:42 PM|| 2004-04-14 5:19:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 I think you've hit the nail on the head, Dave D. We threw off that yoke called "royalty"; the Euros never did. Even the French, who killed their royalty in their Revolution, still long to be ruled by their "betters." It's like they stay children all their lives.

It's pathetic.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2004-04-14 6:51:46 PM|| 2004-04-14 6:51:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 I once installed some Japanese packaging equipment in the U.S. Based on that favorable experience, I was asked to to the same "across the pond." It was totally unacceptable over there. I was actually asked: "But what if someone sticks their fingers in the heat sealer?" In Japan and the U.S. the answer is: "They're idiots and they'll burn their fingers." Across the pond the answer was to install even more guards, interlocks, keyswitches, etc. The system was almost inoperable and the operating instructions doubled in length. Had to do it -- regulatory requirements.

Posted by Tom 2004-04-14 7:23:59 PM|| 2004-04-14 7:23:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Corzine wants to regulate chlorine or ban it, I can't remember.

Until that rich liberal cleans his own bathrooms w/o it and Congress also goes w/o, keep your hands off my Clorox.

Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-04-14 9:08:37 PM|| 2004-04-14 9:08:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 --The continentals seem to have a horror of self-governance, perferring to be ruled by absolute authority.--

I call it "mutated monarchy." They've never gotten thru/over it.

Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-04-14 9:09:50 PM|| 2004-04-14 9:09:50 PM|| Front Page Top

09:04 ed
14:29 concernedfsm
18:14 Raj
16:29 Akrabi
16:14 Raj
15:41 Akrabi
15:37 Raj
15:31 Akrabi
15:22 A
14:55 Hanaa
14:50 A
14:43 Hanaa
15:45 CrazyFool
15:39 Anonymous4052
08:39 tu3031
04:25 Jen
01:59 Atomic Conspiracy
00:33 Old Patriot
00:12 Zenster
00:04 RWV
00:00 Old Patriot
23:56 Zenster
23:52 Lucky
23:45 Frank G