In a meeting with trader and manufacturers, ESMA highlights the requirement for all electrical plugs of all appliances (below 13 amps) to conform to UAE/BS 1363-5 standard (3-pin plugs) to ensure safety. This requirement is expected to reduce the usage of plug adaptors, which are potential fire hazards, especially when pins fit loosely in sockets causing sparking and other problems.

Eng. Mohammad Saleh Badri, Acting Director General, ESMA, said: "Manufacturers and traders need to adopt the UAE/BS 1363-5 standard for all home and office appliances sold in the UAE." He added that the UAE sockets are made to accept plugs, which meet very exact requirements. And if the plug is not UAE/BS 1363-5 compliant, the end-user has to resort to other ways of meeting those dimensions by using a pointed object to open the earth pin, and that is not safe.

Badri said that currently, a number of 2-pin plugs are still being sold in the UAE because many other countries are still using these kind of plugs. ESMA is currently devising a mechanism to gradually restrict the entry of plugs that are not complying with UAE/BS 1363-5 to the country. We will announce this in the beginning of next year." "We are also in discussions with UAE custom authorities to restrict the entry of appliances that do not comply with UAE standards upon the implementation of this regulation. ESMA will also monitor the market in coordination with federal and local government agencies," he added.

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