Adoption of IEC International Standards by any country, whether it is a member of the IEC or not, is entirely voluntary. IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC International Standards transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional standards. Any divergence between the IEC International Standard and the corresponding national or regional standard shall be clearly indicated in the latter.

The extent to which IEC 61508 applies in different industry sectors will depend on whether any application sector standards based on IEC 61508 have been developed.

This text contains extracts from the IEC Functional Safety Zone. All such extracts are copyright of International Electrotechnical Commission © 2005, IEC, Geneva, Switzerland. All rights reserved. IEC has no responsibility for the placement and context in which the extracts are reproduced. This notice takes precedence over any general copyright statement.