All safety footwear, regardless of style, should have as a minimum toe-caps conforming to EN 345 (200 Joules)*. This means the steel toe-cap will withstand the impact of 20kg in weight falling on to the toes from a height of 1 metre. This standard also relates to compression protection corresponding to approximately 1.5 tonnes resting on the toe area.
*Safety Footwear is often generally referred to as EN 345 but the full reference is: EN ISO 20345:2004
The old harmonized European standards EN 344, EN 345, EN 346 and EN 347 were replaced by the new harmonized European standards EN ISO 20344:2004, EN ISO 20345:2004, EN ISO 20346:2004 and EN ISO 20347:2004.
The general lines of the standards were slightly changed: EN ISO 20345:2004, EN ISO 20346:2004 and EN ISO 20347:2004 contain terms, definitions and requirements related to safety, protective and occupational footwear for professional use. EN ISO 20344:2004 standard contains the test methods to evaluate the requirements of the other reference standards. These new standards exclude: footwear for firefighters, footwear with protection against chain saw cutting, slip resistant footwear and anti ESD footwear which are governed respectively by:
• EN 15090:2006 - Footwear for firefighters
• EN ISO 17249:2004 - Safety footwear with resistance to chain saw cutting
• EN ISO 13287:2007 - Footwear. Test method for slip resistance
CEI EN 61340-5-1:2007 - Electrostatics General requirements and EN 61340-4-3:2002 Electrostatics. Standard test methods for Footwear.
