I am currently reviewing our Safety footwear specification and wonder if one of you can decode the meaning of the EN ISO 20345: 2007 standard for Safety footwear with particular reference to the midsole penetration protection. For penetration protection (P) the standard states: "Must be able to resist a penetration force of 1100N". What does this mean in practice, i.e. stepping on a nail, jumping onto a spike from a metre etc, etc. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Mike

Mike, the BS that you quoted refers to penetration by a "test nail" (in yet another different BS). I don't have details of that, but if you convert the 1100N to understandable, old fashioned units, you get approximately 17.7 stone. So I am assuming (a dangerous thing to do), that the test simulates a person of that weight stepping onto a nail. PH2