Assessing the normative and the scientific approaches on product health and safety in European Union: how CE labelling constraints drive the design lifecycle

Within the Common Market, products of European Union (EU) market must have a certain standard level of safety, ensuring health for workers/customers and preserving environment. In this context, CE labeling is a compulsory requirement for product encompassing all EU requirements relative to safety, health and environmental regulations. The objective of the present work is twofold. First, it offers a state of art for CE mark and EMC both with respect to i) the current scientific approaches for EMC compliance in product development and ii) the current CE regulations with respect to products sectors. Secondly, it aims to define and position all the CE labeling activities within product design lifecycle. According to the main EU Directives, the steps of the design lifecycle are newly conceived with respect to the CE compliance, offering a guideline to Academics and Practitioners for product development and design lifecycle under CE labeling constraints.