Prosafe, the Product Safety Enforcement Forum of Europe, has launched its biggest joint action ever. In the coming two years, 35 market surveillance authorities from 27 EU member states or EFTA countries will cooperate to target non-compliant products in five categories: safety barriers, LED and CFL lighting, noisy toys, fireworks and power tools.
Malta, through the Technical Regulations Division of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, will be participating actively in this joint action, both through product specific activities as well as method development meetings. This joint action is partly financed by the EU.
The joint action serves several purposes: firstly, to ensure the safety of consumers by identifying and removing unsafe products from the European market; secondly, to create equal terms and a ‘level playing field’ for business; and thirdly, to support and increase the free flow of goods on the European market.
The joint action participants come from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK. The number of project beneficiaries makes this the biggest joint action ever coordinated by Prosafe.
The first category is safety barriers. Prosafe repeated its priority-setting exercise on child care articles in 2013, confirming that safety barriers had the highest priority.
One reason for this is that around 75 children aged up till four are injured seriously every year and taken to hospital.
The main problems associated with these products are falls, entrapment of limbs or neck, choking and exposure to other hazards such as burns and poisoning. A revised European standard was published in December 2011 and one task of the action is to examine whether the revision has resulted in a safe standard.
Malta will be participating in this product group to ensure that babies and infants are protected against falls from stairs, as well as against injury due to other hazards or improperly designed and constructed products.
The joint action serves several purposes: firstly, to ensure the safety of consumers by identifying and removing unsafe products from the European market
Malta is not participating in the LED (light emitting diode) product group but is covering these products through another project, also coordinated by Prosafe, as well as following the results drawn up by this project.
The Noisy Toys activity will focus on acoustic toys or ‘noisy’ toys. The background is that the main toy safety standard, EN71-1, was updated in 2013 when a new amendment was adopted. This amendment classifies acoustic toys in three exposure categories, depending upon the duration of the exposure:
• Category I, including, for example, toys with headphones or earphones;
• Category II, including, for example, rattles and squeeze toys, wind toys that are imitations of musical instruments;
• Category III, including, for example, cap-firing toys and toy whistles.
The main risk associated with these toys is that excessive noise exposure can cause direct ear damage with noise-induced hearing loss or threshold shift.
There can also be indirect adverse effects linked to physiological and psychological effects, as well as impaired cognition.
Children are particularly vulnerable as they have a different perception of the dangers of noise and often lack the ability to control their environment.
Again, Malta will be participating in this product group to ensure that toys which do not conform to the EN 71-1 requirements and pose a serious risk to consumers are removed from the market.
The MCCAA will not be participating directly in the fireworks product group following the participation two years ago. However, it will follow up on the results obtained by the group, thus ensuring that fireworks found on the market are safer.
The power tools group comprises several subgroups, for example drills, saws of different kinds, grinders, shears, nibblers, hammers, trimmers, screw drivers and impact wrenches. The main hazards associated with power tools include cuts, electric shock, burns, flying particles, entanglement of clothing, sprains and strains, noise and vibration.
There has been a significant number of Rapex notifications in the past five years. The activity will address power tools that are electrically powered, handheld (or transportable) and available in ‘do-it-yourself’ shops. This activity will also start off a priority-setting process that can guide future activities in this product group.
The MCCAA has given this product group priority due to the large number of consumers practising DIY and hence Malta will be active in this product group. This will enhance the level of safety of these products on the market in Malta and ensure a level playing field among economic operators.
In addition to the five product activities, the joint action includes a number of method development activities aimed at further developing the best practices that member states have established under the Prosafe umbrella.
They concern: risk assessment of dangerous products; developing e-Learning materials for market surveillance officers throughout Europe; continued improvement of market surveillance through the implementation of mutual assessments between market surveillance authorities in various EU and EFTA member states; developing links between market surveillance authorities and customs authorities, manufacturing nations and overseas regulatory authorities.
As part of this joint action, inspectors from the Technical Regulations Division will be carrying out visits to economic operators on the market to ensure that the products carry the required markings and documentation.
The MCCAA will also be elevating a number of products from the groups for testing in laboratories overseas as part of the joint action.
This information has been provided by the Market Surveillance Directorate within the Technical Regulations Division, MCCAA.
odette.vella@mccaa.org.mt
Odette Vella is senior information officer, Office for Consumer Affairs, Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.