🔦 Visible and infrared radiation at workplaces — PN-T-05687 (standard withdrawn)

Environment PN-T-05687

Overview

STATUS (state of the PKN cards on 22.09.2026 — THREE cards checked, not one). PN-T-05687:2002 is WITHDRAWN, withdrawal date 15-06-2006. The card indicates a successor: PN-EN 14255-2:2006 — the ENGLISH version. Publication 12-08-2002, KT 157 (Physical Hazards in the Working Environment), ICS 17.240 and 13.280; in its time the standard replaced two documents: PN-T-05687:1977 and PN-T-05685:1977.

THE SUCCESSOR INDICATED ON THE CARD HAS ITSELF BEEN WITHDRAWN FOR SIXTEEN YEARS. This is the most important thing in this entry, and it cannot be seen from the card of the withdrawn standard itself. We opened the card of the successor, and only that one shows it: • PN-T-05687:2002 → withdrawn 15-06-2006, successor according to the card: PN-EN 14255-2:2006 (English version); • PN-EN 14255-2:2006 → WITHDRAWN 06-04-2010, successor according to the card: PN-EN 14255-2:2010 (Polish version); • PN-EN 14255-2:2010 → CURRENT, no withdrawal note. A laboratory that follows the indication on the card of the withdrawn standard and stops at the first step will land on a document withdrawn sixteen years ago. The card answers the question "what replaced it", not "what applies today" — and these two questions diverge wherever the succession has more than one link.

THE CHANGE OF EDITION IN 2010 WAS THE PUBLICATION OF A TRANSLATION, NOT A CHANGE OF CONTENT. Both cards — of the 2006 and the 2010 editions — give the same document in the "Implements" field: EN 14255-2:2005 [IDT]. They differ only in language: 2006 is the English version, 2010 the Polish version. This is the REVERSE direction of the more frequent one, in which newer editions are no longer translated and a laboratory wishing to read in Polish has to reach for a withdrawn edition. Here the Polish translation came FOUR YEARS AFTER the English edition, and it is this one that is the document in force today.

WHAT CHANGED FOR THE RESULT — THE SUBJECT OF THE MEASUREMENT SHIFTED FROM THE RADIATION TO THE PERSON. The titles of the two standards are not two names for the same thing: • PN-T-05687:2002 — "Methods of MEASUREMENT of visible and infrared radiation AT WORKPLACES"; • PN-EN 14255-2:2010 — "Measurement and assessment of personal EXPOSURES to incoherent optical radiation". The first describes the measurement of the radiation field at the workplace, the second — the measurement and assessment of the exposure of a particular person. The scope of the standard in force states directly that it concerns radiation emitted by artificial sources at indoor and outdoor workplaces when its harmful effect cannot be excluded, and that it does NOT concern exposure outside working time. This is a different test question, not a newer edition of the same thing. THE THIRD ANSWER — WHETHER THE RESULTS ARE COMPARABLE — HAS NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED BY US, and this is a gap, not a feature of the entry: we did not have the texts of either standard. The change of subject itself from the radiation field to the exposure of a person is, however, enough not to copy a result from before 2006 as a result according to the standard in force without checking how it was obtained.

THE STANDARD IN FORCE DOES NOT GIVE LIMIT VALUES — AND DOES SO DELIBERATELY. The scope of PN-EN 14255-2 states that it does not specify exposure limit values for VIS and IR, and that giving them is left to national regulations or international recommendations. For the laboratory this means that the reference document for the MEASUREMENT and the reference document for the ASSESSMENT OF CONFORMITY are two different things — the result must be related to the value from the regulation, not from the standard.

WHAT LABORATORIES CITING THIS STANDARD MEASURE (measurement on the database of accreditation scopes, 22.09.2026, across all forms of notation; laboratories counted as distinct entities). PN-T-05687 — 67 entries, 16 laboratories; PN-EN 14255-2 — 98 entries, 22 laboratories. The methodologies divide into two quantities, the SECOND of which IS CALCULATED: • EFFECTIVE IRRADIANCE for VIS and IRA in the spectral range 780–1400 nm (in some entries 380–1400 nm) — a measured quantity; • EFFECTIVE RADIANCE for IRA in the same range — marked in the accreditation scopes with the annotation "(z obliczeń)" [calculated]. Declared ranges: from 10⁻⁶ to 3990 W/m², with different laboratories giving different lower limits — 10⁻⁶, 10⁻³, 0 or 30 W/m². The spread of the lower limit is therefore greater here than with a typical chemical method, and it results from the instrument used, not from the standard.

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not have the text of PN-T-05687:2002 or of PN-EN 14255-2:2010 — both are sold for a fee, and the withdrawn standard is no longer on sale. We read the CATALOGUE CARDS of the three documents of the chain (05687:2002, 14255-2:2006, 14255-2:2010) and the scope of the standard in force given on the card; we do not go further. We therefore DO NOT GIVE: the measurement conditions (distance, geometry, averaging time), the requirements for the instruments, the way of determining the effective radiance by calculation, or the uncertainty. Nor have we established whether and how the measured quantities changed between editions — that requires the texts.

Method principle

At the workplace, the effective irradiance of visible and infrared radiation is measured in a specified spectral range — for IRA it is 780–1400 nm, for some measurements the whole range 380–1400 nm — where "effective" means weighted by the effectiveness function appropriate to the hazard assessed. The second quantity is the effective radiance, which in the accreditation scopes is given as a CALCULATED quantity, not one measured directly. The result is related to limit values that the standard itself does not give — they are indicated by a national regulation or an international recommendation.

Applications

• Assessment of occupational exposure to ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation from artificial sources
• Workplaces at furnaces, foundries, steelworks and other sources of thermal radiation
• Workplaces with process lamps, welding and high-luminance lighting
• Reading an accreditation scope in which the radiance "(z obliczeń)" [calculated] stands next to the irradiance
• Checking whether a citation of PN-T-05687 in the documentation is not a citation of a standard withdrawn since 2006

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-T-05687:2002 (wersja polska)

Title (PL)

Ochrona przed promieniowaniem optycznym — Metody pomiaru promieniowania widzialnego i podczerwonego na stanowiskach pracy

Title (EN)

Protection against optical radiation — Measurement methods of visible and infrared radiation at workplaces

Step-by-step procedure

1. Checking which document applies

   Before citing, check the whole chain of succession, not just the card of the standard cited: PN-T-05687:2002 has been withdrawn since 2006, and the successor indicated on its card, PN-EN 14255-2:2006, has been withdrawn since 2010. The document in force is PN-EN 14255-2:2010 in the Polish version.

2. Establishing the spectral range

   Establish whether the assessment concerns IRA alone (780–1400 nm) or the whole VIS and IRA range (380–1400 nm). The accreditation scopes of laboratories contain both variants, and they are not interchangeable.

3. Measuring the irradiance

   Measure the effective irradiance in the selected spectral range. We do not give the measurement conditions (distance, geometry, averaging time) — we did not have the text of the standard; check them in the standard itself before the measurement.

4. Determining the radiance

   Determine the effective radiance in accordance with the standard and mark it in the report as a quantity "(z obliczeń)" [calculated] — as the accreditation scopes do. A calculated quantity has an uncertainty composed of several components and is not the result of a direct measurement.

5. Relating to the limit values

   Relate the result to the limit values from the REGULATION, not from the standard: the standard in force deliberately does not give them. In the report, indicate separately the reference document for the measurement and separately the act from which the permissible value was taken.

6. Checking the citation in the accreditation scope

   If PN-T-05687 stands in the accreditation scope or in the procedure, check whether this is a deliberate decision agreed with the accreditation body or a citation copied from before 2006. The withdrawal of a standard does not in itself invalidate a test that was carried out, but it requires a decision, not an oversight.

Required equipment and apparatus

Health and safety (OHS)

• The measurement is made with the radiation sources in operation — eye protection appropriate for the visible and infrared range and protection against thermal radiation apply
• IRA radiation (780–1400 nm) penetrates to the retina and the lens without triggering an aversion reflex — the absence of pain does not mean the absence of exposure
• With high-luminance sources, the time of direct observation must be limited also for the person carrying out the measurement, not only for the worker being assessed
• A result related to the standard instead of to the regulation is not an assessment of conformity — the standard in force contains no limit values

Frequently asked questions