European Committee for Standardization in the context of Swiss Association for Standardization

Medical gowns are hospital gowns worn by medical professionals as personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to provide a barrier between patient and professional. Whereas patient gowns are flimsy often with exposed backs and arms, PPE gowns, as seen below in the cardiac surgeon photograph, cover most of the exposed skin surfaces of the professional medics.

In several countries, PPE gowns for use in the COVID-19 pandemic became in appearance more like cleanroom suits as knowledge of the best practices filtered up through the national bureaucracies. For example, the European norm-setting bodies CEN and CENELEC on 30 March 2020 in collaboration with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market made freely-available the relevant standards documents in order "to tackle the severe shortage of protective masks, gloves and other products currently faced by many European countries. Providing free access to the standards will facilitate the work of the many companies wishing to reconvert their production lines in order to manufacture the equipment that is so urgently needed."

CENELEC (French: Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique; English: European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) is responsible for European standardization in the area of electrical engineering. Together with ETSI (telecommunications) and CEN (other technical areas), it forms the European system for technical standardization. Standards harmonised by these agencies are regularly adopted in many countries outside Europe which follow European technical standards. Although CENELEC works closely with the European Union, it is not an EU institution. Nevertheless, its standards are "EN" EU (and EEA) standards, thanks to EU Regulation 1025/2012.

CENELEC is a non-profit organization under Belgian law, based in Brussels. The members are the national electrotechnical standardization bodies of most European countries. The standards are published in three official, authoritative language versions (in cooperation with CEN, unless something else is agreed): English, French and German. Members that have another official language then make a national translation. English versions are generally the primary references.

European Standards, sometimes called Euronorm (abbreviated EN, from the German name Europäische Norm, "European Norm"), are technical standards which have been ratified by one of the three European Standards Organizations (ESO): European Committee for Standardization (CEN), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), or European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). All ENs are designed and created by all standards organizations and interested parties through a transparent, open, and consensual process.

European Standards are a key component of the European single market. They are crucial in facilitating trade and have high visibility among manufacturers inside and outside the European territory. A standard represents a model specification, a technical solution against which a market can trade.

Aluminium recycling is the process in which secondary commercial aluminium is created from scrap or other forms of end-of-life or otherwise unusable aluminium. It involves re-melting the metal, which is cheaper and more energy-efficient than the production of virgin aluminium by electrolysis of alumina (Al₂O₃) refined from raw bauxite by use of the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes.

Recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium from the raw ore. In 2022, the United States produced 3.86 metric tons of secondary aluminium for every metric ton of primary aluminium produced. Over the same time period, secondary aluminium accounted for 34% of the total new supply of aluminium including imports. Used beverage containers are the largest component of processed aluminium scrap, and most of it is manufactured back into aluminium cans.

European Standards (abbreviated EN, from the German name Europäische Norm ("European standard")) are technical standards drafted and maintained by CEN (European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).