As we are all aware, international standards for non-destructive testing (NDT) personnel qualification and certification mandate that the visual acuity of inspection personnel shall be verified on an annual basis by persons suitably trained and familiar with the requirements of BS EN ISO 18490:2015 ‘Non-destructive testing – Evaluation of vision acuity of NDT personnel’.
Attestation of having met the requirements contained within the standard shall be made in writing and form part of the formal records of the individual for certification.
The standard confirms that medical personnel, including optometrists, are not exempt from the requirements contained within the standard. By meeting the near vision acuity level defined within the standard, then the requirements of BS EN ISO 9712 and EN 4179 will have been met through use of accepted procedures contained within the standard under defined testing conditions.
Tests contained within the standard are recognised as being “not medical in nature” but are intended to objectively ensure adequate near vision perception without reliance on reading ability and, because it was historically difficult to demonstrate equivalency in near vision tests, BS EN ISO 18490 was prepared to ensure that an international system could be adopted for use without the need to demonstrate equivalence. As such, tests contained within BS EN ISO 18490 have now become the recommended method of determining near vision acuity for NDT personnel.
The current version of the standard specifies the form of optotype, the quality requirements for the chart, the test procedure and the acceptance level for near vision acuity, as well as addressing the qualification requirements for those persons carrying out the test. The current standard does not address the requirements for confirmation of colour vision; however, the next iteration will include references to Ishihara and grey scale perception tests for the purpose of confirming both colour perception and grey scale identification through use of Dr Kölbl and Skerik grey scale tests.
One further important consideration the NDT News readership is being asked to consider is that members of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Working Group (WG) responsible for making revisions to the standard are actively considering the removal of ‘Tumbling E’, one of the test options currently available and used to confirm visual acuity.
Therefore, BINDT would like to draw your attention to the proposed changes to the standard, should you wish to make a public comment on the revised standard when it reaches Draft International Standard (DIS) status. It is at this stage that the standard will be submitted to the ISO Central Secretariat by the committee manager and then circulated to all ISO members, who have 12 weeks to vote and/or comment upon the document. Draft standards for comment at this enquiry stage are in addition open for public comment, which ISO may choose to recognise or not.
A list of standards that are currently at the enquiry stage can be found on the ISO website, where you may view and, where necessary, provide any comments through your national member. For the purpose of those persons and/or organisations operating within the UK, this would be the British Standards Institute (BSI).
For information, where the DIS is approved by a two-thirds majority vote from the Working Group members, and not more than one quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative, and no technical changes are introduced, then the standard will be published.
For those within the UK, the draft standard will be made available for public comment via the BSI Standards Development Portal from 11 February 2025 until 14 March 2025 and all comments may be submitted using the following link: https://standardsdevelopment.bsigroup.com/projects/2024-00396#/section
If an organisation within the UK has any questions regarding the public commenting process, please feel free to contact Graham Stockley, your BSI representative, at: graham.stockley@bsigroup.com
For those outside of the UK, comments should be made through your country’s representative, as previously indicated.
Comments by members
Comment by
,
Date 03/03/2025
Thank you for taking the time to review the draft standard ISO 18490, and in addition for providing comment.
With regard to your post: I would like to confirm the following for "far vision". In that the ISO 18490 reviewing panel have taken into consideration the increasing use of remote NDT platforms such as drones and the requirement for drone pilots and NDT operators alike to have demonstrated adequate far vision capability when used to confirm the correct placement of drones and or other NDT platforms when utilised during remote NDT inspection programmes.
In response to feedback "the standard seems to have changed for no reason...etc" and in order to capture specific comments for consideration by the ISO 18490 working group, it is extremely important that all comments are documented and provided to:
Mr Graham Stockley at the following address:
Graham.stockley@bisgroup.com
Georgios, I hope this has provided you with the feedback you require, and the guidance and direction required for your thoughts to be considered by ISO.
Comment by Georgios Gkosdis
Warminster, United Kingdom
Date 10/02/2025
Furthermore, I cannot understand the reason why we need to have far vision testing. Most NDT is conducted close or in proximity of the operator and not in a far distance.
The standard seems to have changed for no reason and have become more convoluted and strenuous to any business that needs to abide to it.