News

Introduction

Interoperability of railways rolling stock and infrastructure is essential for the further improvement of European rail transport operation. Harmonization of telecommunications in railway operation, with the goal of full interoperability, is a key element and a harmonized interoperable system in Europe is expected to open the way to global harmonization.

At the end of the 1990s, the European authorities have selected GSM-R as the radio transmission technology. This is reflected in the technical specification for interoperability (TSI) relating to the control-command and signalling subsystems (CCS) of the trans-European rail system, with standardization being a key to achieving a harmonized solution.

GSM-R is part of the ETSI/3GPP GSM specifications and applications have specific Quality of Service requirements for a harmonized railway operation. In addition, it operates in the ER-GSM band.

Within Europe, GSM-R is combined with the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to form the basis for an Intelligent Transport System that gives railways the means to improve the efficiency of rail operations and offer new services to users.

ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System, is the rail management system which combines the European Train Control System (ETCS) with GSM-R. As a unique European train control system, ERTMS is designed to gradually replace the existing incompatible systems throughout Europe. This should bring considerable benefits to the railway sector as it allows seamless international freight and passenger transport. Moreover, ERTMS as train control system brings significant advantages in terms of maintenance costs savings, safety, reliability, punctuality and traffic capacity.

The GSM-R system continued to spread to even wider geographical areas. Beyond all European countries, it was adopted, among other places, in Saudi Arabia and Israel in the Middle East. In the Far East it has extended into India, China and Australia, where networks are implemented. This is also the case for South Africa as well as all North Africa countries. Overall, the GSM-R system has been deployed on more than 150,000 km of track in Europe and 230,000 km worldwide.

Beyond GSM-R: the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS)

UNITEL, the Rail Industry Group has indicated that support of GSM-R products and services are guaranteed at least until 2030 on a general basis and beyond 2030 on a per contract basis. Based upon this information, the railway sector had to mitigate the risk of non-availability of GSM-R as radio system for train operation after this date.

Replacement of GSM-R equipment (on-board and trackside) by new equipment offering new services (which cannot be provided by GPRS) while maintaining interoperability has to be considered in a global timeline. For this reason, the evolution of the GSM-R was discussed and UIC (International Union of Railways) commenced discussions on the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) from 2013 onwards. Under supervision by the European Union Agency for Railways and with support of the rail sector representative organizations, the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) was referred to in the CCS-TSI of 2023.

In 2015, ETSI’s Technical Committee for Rail Telecommunications (TC RT), home of the GSM-R standard, started to work on the Next Generation Radio for Rail while 3GPP which develops the standards for mobile communications systems, has created a study item on FRMCS. The work is currently ongoing and a set of 8 ETSI Technical Specifications are now being developed in TC RT under a European Union Standardization Request.

Beyond the technology (or technologies) of choice, one of the main challenges in the future radio communication system for railway was the spectrum and a great achievement was reached with the adoption in EU of the COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2021/1730 of 28 September 2021 on the harmonised use of the paired frequency bands 874,4 to 880,0 MHz and 919,4 to 925,0 MHz and of the unpaired frequency band 1 900 to 1 910 MHz for Railway Mobile Radio.

Apart from the spectrum availability at European level which was achieved, the challenge is related to the required additional investment in 5G based FRMCS of potentially new radio sites rollout with respect to the installed base of GSM-R radio sites whose rollout in Europe is still ongoing.

Our Role & Activities

The standardization work is carried out by a dedicated ETSI Technical Committee (TC), Rail Telecommunications (RT).

FRMCS normative work in response to the FRMCS Standardisation Request (M/603) includes:

A first set of these Technical Specifications is expected to be finalized by the beginning of 2025. These standardisation activities are coordinated with the International Union of Railways (UIC) as well as with 3GPP.

TC RT also works in cooperation with TC ITS for the investigation of the shared usage of 5GHz frequency band (5 875 to 5 925 MHz) for Urban Rail and ITS. This work takes place in a dedicated task force between TC RT and TC ITS (JTFIR).

ETSI's standardization activities for GSM-R within TC RT focuses on the application of GSM for railway telecommunications. This included its improvement with additional features and services sought by the railways including the usage of GPRS/EGPRS for ETCS operation and IP-based protocols such as SIP. TC RT is the basis for proposal of revision needed to operate the rail system while ensuring complete interoperability.

ETSI TC RT is represented in JPC-Rail (Sector Forum Rail) as well as EUAR TWG STA (European Union Agency for Rail Topical Working Group on Standardisation) coordination groups.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the RT committee page.

Introduction

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) makes use of the unused frequency spectrum of the twisted pair telephone cables by carrying a digital signal without interfering with the voice service. DSL technology has evolved over the years with fibre reaching closer to the customers’ premises resulting in shorter copper loops. This has allowed twisted pair cables to exploit higher frequencies used in VDSL2 and G.Fast.

ETSI is very active in the definition of physical layer standards for DSL technologies including the specification of reverse power feeding typically for use with G.Fast. This technology enables powering of small network nodes from the customers premises over the same copper pair that carries the DSL or G.Fast signal.

Our Role & Activities

TC ATTM Working Group TM 6 is responsible for digital access transmission systems on metallic wired infrastructures (e.g. twisted pair, coaxial pair, power transmission lines/PLT), particularly for digital subscriber line systems (DSL) on balanced wired (twisted pair) Infrastructures and will produce within their scope:

Introduction

Coaxial cable networks have been widely deployed to distribute television services using broadcasting technology. This infrastructure has been enhanced and developed into a Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) architecture along with the introduction of a return channel. The industry is now deploying digital television services, high-speed data services, Internet Protocol (IP) voice and other time-critical multimedia services across these broadband cable telecommunication network technologies.

These services are delivered using the DOCSIS® and IPCablecom protocols. DOCSIS is a data communication protocol for the transparent transmission of IP traffic across the HFC infrastructure. IPCablecom has been developed to deliver telephony and other Quality of Service (QoS) enhanced, secure, IP multimedia, time critical communications services, using packetized data transmission technology on a HFC data network utilizing the DOCSIS protocol.

Our Role & Activities

ETSI’s Technical Committee CABLE is responsible for the creation, development and maintenance of standards related to integrated broadband cable telecommunication network technologies including:

The cable industry is a global market and therefore ETSI’s cable standards are developed to align to the extent possible with standards either already developed or under development in other regions.

The ETSI specifications are consistent to the extent possible with the CableLabs® set of specifications and with deliverables published by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). In many of its activities TC CABLE leverages close relationships with SCTE, CENELEC and ITU-T.

ETSI is hosting standards for the core technology components and communication platforms deployed in HFC networks such as DOCSIS. Starting with the first generation [ES 201 488 series], DOCSIS provides an IP‑based data communication interface that today is connecting millions of homes throughout the world. Further DOCSIS generations such as ES 202 488 and EN 302 878 series added advanced features including the ability to bond multiple channels together and support for IP version 6.

TC CABLE achieved another milestone on standards for broadband cable network technology with the publication of a multi-part specification [ES 203 811 series] for the fourth-generation transmission systems for interactive cable television services (IP cable modem). The latest version 4.0 of DOCSIS became an ETSI Standard (ES). The series of standards spans the DOCSIS 4.0 physical layer [ES 203 811-2]; MAC and upper layer protocols [ES 203 811-3]; cable modem operations support system interface [ES 203 811-4]; converged cable access platform operations support system interface [ES 203 811-5]; and security [ES 203 811-6] aspects.

An ongoing focus of TC CABLE is work on energy management for cable networks. A European Norm [EN 305 200-4-4] that specifies the requirements for global KPIs for energy management was published and heavily used.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Introduction

In terms of 'sales' the (Subscriber Identity Module) SIM or better the USIM, how it is called since 3G, must rank as ETSI's most successful standard. There are several billions of USIMs sold every year in the world and no sign of a slowdown in the demand for them. The SIM has developed in to a 'Smart Secure Element' with a growing variety of applications and features.

The USIM used in Digital Cellular Telecommunications Systems like from GSM over 3G, 4G now to 5G is the entity that contains the identity of the subscriber. When the SIM is placed in a terminal or handset, users can register onto a network.

The primary function of the USIM is to authenticate the validity of a terminal when accessing the network. It also provides a means to authenticate the user and may also store other subscriber-related information or applications.

The ETSI work on Secure Elements, namely the evolvement of the functionality of the UICC, which is the basic platform for the USIM has evolved the USIM, towards allowing contact-less data flow for Identity, Security and Payment applications.

Our Role & Activities

USIM standardization is concentrated in two committees:

Technical Specifications Group, 'Core Network and Terminals' Working Group 6 (CT WG6) is responsible for the specifications of network authentication applications such as the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) which is used by 2G systems, the USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) which is used by 3GPP™ systems  (from 3G to 5G), the ISIM (IM Services Identity Module) for authenticating to IMS and the HPSIM (Hosting Party Subscription Identity Module) with the exception of the security algorithms (developed by 3GPP™ Systems Aspects (SA) WG3).

The group is responsible for the standardization of the USIM/SIM for applications on top of the UICC specified by ETSI TC SET.

See http://www.3gpp.org/specifications-groups/ct/wg6.

The Committee is responsible for the definition of the Secure Element Platform, the UICC.

USIM listing

The Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) is a 3GPP application on the UICC. It interoperates with a 3GPP terminal and provides access to 3GPP services.

The USIM application for 3GPP telecom network operation defines:

In addition 3GPP™ defines the interface between the UICC and the Mobile Equipment and procedures for the USIM Application Toolkit (USAT):

UICC listing

3GPP™ specifies the interface between the UICC and the Terminal for 3GPP telecom network operation, which includes:

3GPP TSG CT WG6 is mainly referring to the specifications developed by ETSI TC SET for the UICC. However, 3GPP TSG CT WG6 is defining specific deviations or additions on top of the UICC specifications developed by ETSI TC SET.

ETSI TC SET specifies the interface between the UICC and the terminal in general, such as:

ISIM listing

The specification of the IP Multimedia Services Identity Module (ISIM) application for access to IMS services contains:

This is to ensure interoperability between an ISIM and Terminal independent from the respective manufacturer, card issuer or operator.

HPSIM listing

The specification of the Hosting Party Subscription Identity Module (HPSIM) application for access to Hosting Party services by a H(e)NBcontains:

SSIM listing

The specification of the Slice Subscriber Identity Module (SSIM) application for 3GPP telecom network operation related to optional Network Slice-Specific Authentication and Authorization procedure:

The specification defines a radio frequency-independent interface between the UICC and a contactless function (CLF) component in the terminal. This interface allows the card to be in use, even when the terminal is switched off for telecommunications use.

The ETSI SET specification specifies the interface between the UICC and the CLF component based on a single wire protocol (SWP).

Introduction

Public safety is enhanced by rapid and efficient communications, whether as a result of Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) or its close relation; Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) or via resilient and secure public communications networks.

In our era of ubiquitous smart mobile phones public safety is again enhanced, allowing not only contacting emergency services through the emergency numbers (e.g. 112, 911) but enlarging emergency communications to other media, like video or real-time text and data as well as delivering crucial associated information as the precise location of the caller to emergency services.

Public safety is also strengthened by public warning systems ready to alert citizens in case of imminent danger depending on the location and evolution of the emergency situation.

A significant part of the Standards work related to Public Safety is in the need for emergency communications, being quick and efficient, which includes many scenarios ranging from a minor road traffic accident to a major incident like a passenger train crash, a terrorist incident or a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami.

Our Role & Activities

The EMTEL Committee is responsible for the capture of requirements concerning emergency communication services, covering typically the four scenarios in case of an emergency e.g. communication of individuals with authorities/organisations, from authorities/organisations to individuals, between authorities/organisations and amongst individuals. In addition, EMTEL deals with topics like location (e.g. Advanced Mobile Location), Core elements for network independent access to emergency services (currently known as Next Generation 112, NG112) opening emergency services communications to data, video and text, communications involving IoT devices in emergency situations and alerting. It is worth noting that requirements in the end-to-end chain between UE and PSAP are under EMTEL consideration.

Also, EMTEL addresses Total Conversation Access to emergency services, a combination of three media in a conversational call (video, real-time text and audio), that may help people with disabilities who, for example, need video for sign language or real-time text for a text based conversation or as complement to a voice conversation.

TC EMTEL is currently addressing Accessibility and interoperability of emergency communications and for the answering of emergency communications by the public safety answering point (PSAPs) (including to the single European Emergency number 112), in answer to the EC Standardisation Request M587.

Beyond the delivery of specifications EMTEL is involved with Conformance testing and Plugtests, e.g. NG112 Communications, AML handsets.

ETSI is preparing standards in the area of satellite communication systems including satellite emergency communication, in particular involving broadband services. ETSI SES has answered to the European space mandate (M/496) to develop standards for the space industry, more particularly concerning disaster management. The committee has also prepared technical specifications for GNSS based location systems.

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is a digital Private Mobile Radio (PMR) and Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) technology for critical communications e.g. police, ambulance and fire services, security services, utilities, military, public access, fleet management, transport services, closed user groups, factory site services, mining.

TETRA standards are complete and revised when needed.

The Third Generation Partnership Project deals with a number of 3G/4G/5G services dedicated to public safety, e.g. the Priority Service and Multimedia Priority Service, the Voice Group Call Service (VGCS) for public authority officials, the transferring of emergency call data and the Public Warning System.

3GPP^TM has also produced standards for eCall, an in-vehicle emergency call service that will allow data generated during a road traffic accident or similar incident to be routed to a Public Service Access Point (PSAP) as part of an emergency call automatically instigated by the vehicle. This work has involved liaison with ETSI Technical Committee Mobile Standards Group (MSG).

The 3GPP SA WG6 is a dedicated group for Critical Communications applications and is responsible for the definition, evolution and maintenance of technical specification(s) for application layer functional elements and interfaces supporting critical communications (e.g. Mission Critical Push To Talk and Mission Critical Video).

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Introduction

eHealth includes the application of ICT (information and communications technologies) across the whole range of functions that affect the health sector.
 
eHealth systems include tools for health authorities and professionals, from national to international, from the doctor to the hospital manager, nurses, data processing specialists, social security administrators and - of course - the patients, as well as patient-centric health systems for individuals and community. The primary concern is to support diagnosis and treatment but ICT systems are also essential to the financial management and efficient daily operation of any state or privately-run health care provider.

Examples include health information networks, electronic health records, telemedicine services, personal wearable and portable communicable systems including those for medical implants, health portals, and many other ICT-based tools assisting disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, health monitoring and lifestyle management.

eHealth promises to improve the quality of healthcare, reduce costs and help to foster independent living. But the success of its implementation relies on the widespread digitization of all sectors of society and, although an increasing number of patients enjoy access services such as telecare and telemonitoring, the use of telemedicine is still very limited. One of the problems currently hindering the development of the ‘virtual’ clinic is a lack of interoperability. Standards therefore have a key role to play in assisting the development of new eHealth products and the growth of telemedicine.

A further critical role for eHealth is emerging with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into many areas where eHealth presents important use cases. In particular the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential of AI/eHealth in areas including:

Our Role & Activities

ETSI Technical Committee eHEALTH is responsible for coordinating ETSI’s activities in the eHealth domain, identifying gaps where further standardization activities might be required and addressing those gaps which are not the responsibility of other ETSI bodies.

Vital aspects to be considered by TC eHEALTH are:

TC eHEALTH has primary responsibility to:

Within ETSI, TC eHEALTH collaborates directly with several other technical bodies including:

The committee also contributes to ETSI’s OCG AI on eHealth.

TC eHEALTH published two ETSI White Papers 'The argument in favour of eHealth standardization in ETSI' (September 2018) & ‘The role of SDOs in developing standards for ICT to mitigate the impact of a pandemic’ (May 2020) and a Technical Report [TR 103 477 V1.3.1 (2023-01)] on ‘Standardization use cases for eHealth’. TC eHEALTH co-operates in ETSI in areas including Pandemic Monitoring (Contact Tracing), IoT Security, Privacy, Safety and SAREF mapping to eHealth developments.

The group launched preliminary investigations into use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in eHealth applications and works on data recording requirements (Electronic Health Record) for eHealth.

This activity has been expanded to cooperation with the Board/OCG sub-group for AI in the writing of the White Paper. The eHealth group will provide Use Cases for health and is also commenting on Human Rights as applied to standards-making.

TC eHEALTH accepted to maintain the GS/GR published by the closed ISG E4P that developed a framework and consistent set of specifications for proximity tracing systems, to enable the development of applications and platforms, and to facilitate international interoperability.

The closed ISG E4P standardization framework enabled developers to build interoperable mobile apps for proximity detection and anonymous identification to allow the development of interoperable systems to automatically trace and inform potentially infected users in addition to manual notification methods, whilst preserving users’ privacy and complying with relevant Data Protection regulation.

 eHealth can benefit from this standardization framework to address the application of tools in the ICT ehealth environment.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the eHEALTH committee page.

Introduction

TErrestrial Trunked RAdio (TETRA) is a digital trunked mobile radio standard developed to meet the needs of traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) user organizations such as:

The TETRA standard has been specifically developed to meet the needs of a variety of traditional PMR user organizations. This means it has a scaleable architecture allowing economic network deployments ranging from single site local area coverage to multiple site wide area national coverage.

Some unique PMR services of TETRA are:

Besides meeting the needs of traditional PMR user organizations, the TETRA standard has also been developed to meet the needs of Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) operators.

To meet the ever changing user requirements and utilize the latest technology developments, TETRA continues to be evolved and enhanced with the development of new standards. This includes TETRA Release 2, which includes the TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS) that provides wideband high speed data communication services.

Our Role & Activities

ETSI technical committee TETRA and Critical Communications Evolution (TCCE) produces the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) standard which delivers frequency spectrum efficient digital PMR and PAMR system to support voice and data services using techniques such as Trunking, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) methods and a variety of efficient modulation schemes for increased data throughput.

In addition to the ongoing maintenance and development of the TETRA standard their activities include:

Within ETSI, the work of the TCCE committee depends on effective cooperation with other committees, such as ETSI EMC & Radio Spectrum Matters (ERM) committee, ETSI EMTEL and ETSI SAGE for security matters.

Outside ETSI, the TCCE committee liaises with TCCA (the Critical Communications Association) on a number of topics e.g. promotional and technical discussions on how to best advance the TETRA Standard ensuring that the needs of the PMR community for mission-critical broadband services are met, or with 3GPP on requirements and proposed architectural solutions for critical communications broadband evolution.

Details of ETSI algorithms (TEA1, TEA3, TEA4, TEA6, TEA7, TAA1, TAA2).

Please see details of TETRA codes.

Standards

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the TCCE committee page.

Introduction

Secure Elements (e.g. Smart Cards) are micro-processor equipped tokens, able to process and store a diverse range of applications and data. They are used as credit cards, banking cards in general, ID cards and especially as SIMs in mobile telecommunications. Several billion SIMs have gone into the market every year now for quite a number of years. While the early Subscriber Identity Modules, as SIMs are really called, were developed by an ETSI committee being a predecessor of TC SET, today’s SIMs consist of the underlying platform, called the UICC, developed by TC SET and, on top of this platform, the application developed by 3GPP.

Not all SIMs going into the market these days have the form of a “card”. The size of the very first SIMs has shrunk and shrunk over the years. Some SIMs these days come in the form of Surface Mounted Devices (SMDs) or even just chips, e.g. eSIMs (being embedded into mobile phones, smartwatches, IoT devices, etc.); security and functionality are the important factors. So TC SET is now standardizing Secure Elements of which smart cards are just a special case. Secure Elements can, for instance, also be incorporated into a System on Chip (SoC) solution as the current work of TC SET shows.

Our Role & Activities

TC SCP (Smart Card Platform) was set up in April 2000 (renamed to TC SET in January 2022), to create a central focus point for the standardization of a common IC card platform for mobile telecommunication systems, allowing the participation from companies not necessarily involved in GSM & 3GPP^TM standards.

The main topic in the early days of TC SET was thus to separate the underlying security platform, what became known as the UICC, from the application itself, e.g., the SIM. The aim was to create a series of specifications for a Smart Card Platform on which other industry sectors can base their system-specific applications to achieve compatibility between all applications resident on the Smart Card. The nearly 50 specifications we developed to achieve this purpose are generic and application-agnostic. As such they can be used for any application designed to reside on the UICC. They have thus found their way into other applications such as ID management and the contactless interface specified by TC SET is used in financial services. For instance, our core platform specification defining the interface between a UICC and a terminal (TS 102 221) is also one of the mandated specifications for the smart meter work item of EC and EFTA (M/441). As one of the very few standardization bodies TC SET also developed test specifications for its core documents to help to achieve developing interoperable implementations.

TC SET keeps maintaining and upgrading the UICC specifications for the Smart Card Platform. The latest work in this ongoing process is the use of the I3C® interface and the definition of new smaller form factors.

Clearly, the origin of the UICC dates back a few decades and technology is changing all the time. Though the UICC still satisfies the (security) requirements of today’s world, TC SET started a couple of years ago to think about a new security platform, the next generation Smart Secure Platform or, for short, SSP. Everything was to be re-considered, from architecture and form factor to transport protocol and file system, never forgetting the overall performance and the ecosystem it operates in.

TC SET has published a large set of specifications for the SSP. They cover the requirements, the general technical characteristics, the integration of the Secure Element into a System on Chip (SoC) solution and, as the first protocol between the Smart Secure Platform and the outside world, the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and I3C® interface. As for the UICC, TC SET has developed test specifications for all of these.

Trust and privacy in IoT are crucial market drivers for IoT and applications relying on those. As such, our new-generation Smart Secure Platform will contribute significantly to achieving these goals.

The 3GPP Core Network and Terminals experts in Working Group CT6 - is responsible for work on the SIM (used by 2G), the USIM (Universal SIM) for 3GPP systems (3G, 4G (LTE), 5G) and the ISIM (IM Services Identity Module) for the IMS domain and the HPSIM (Hosting Party Subscription Identity Module) for H(e)NB.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the SET committee page and for 3GPP WG CT6 via the standards search.

Overview

The world's population relies increasingly on satellite services for many different purposes, including voice and data communication, radio and television broadcast, distribution and contribution links, location services, maritime and aeronautical communications.

ETSI's activities concerning satellite communications include satellite communication services and applications (including mobile and broadcasting), earth stations and earth station equipment, especially the radio frequency interfaces and network and/or user interfaces and protocols implemented in earth stations and satellite systems.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the SES committee page.

Introduction

ETSI activity in the field of telecommunications safety is based on the following legislation:

The Low Voltage Directive is one of a set of Directives that apply to electrical equipment. For more information, see the European Commission - Enterprise and Industry web pages on Electrical Equipment.

This is part of a package of measures related to Health and Safety at work, and puts requirements on employers to provide their workers with a safe working environment, in particular with respect to ElectroMagnetic Fields (EMF).

Our Role & Activities

ETSI’s Safety committee (TC SAFETY) monitors developments in electromagnetic fields (EMF), electrical and laser safety, plus safety in cable television systems, as these impact the interests of ETSI members. The committee also works closely with other European and international standards organizations in order to establish, wherever possible, globally-applicable standards for telecommunications equipment safety and to avoid the duplication of effort.

In particular, ETSI TC Safety provides a voice for ETSI Members in external organizations by being responsible for co-ordinating safety requirements between ETSI, ITU-CEPT and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC), for monitoring the safety aspects of all ETSI standards and specifications, and for co-ordinating ETSI’s position on telecommunications equipment safety.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the Safety committee page.