RAPEX Lists Juvenile Products Among Top Five Notifications in 2016

RAPEX, the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for dangerous products, excluding food, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, listed juvenile products among its top five notified types of products in 2016. In recent years, notifications for childcare articles and children’s equipment have been steadily increasing, reminding manufacturers that they need to ensure their products are safe and compliant to avoid costly and damaging recalls.

RAPEX covers 31 countries in the EU and EEA (European Economic Area). When a dangerous product is identified, the European Commission (EC) is notified and RAPEX ensures this information is disseminated to all members. Notifications can be:

• Compulsory – originating from a governmental or customs authority
• Voluntary – originating from a producer or distributor, who will notify the EC when a problem is identified and a product needs to be withdrawn

The overall number of notifications via RAPEX have remained fairly constant during the last few years, with toys being the dominant category – in 2016, 26% of all notifications were for toys. The principal notifying countries in 2016 were Germany, Spain, France, Hungary and the UK.

In 2016, Childcare Articles and Children’s Equipment had 74 notifications, accounting for 5% of all recalls and making it one of the top five recalled categories. This category has been increasing in recent years, from only 36 notified products in 2013.

Sixteen of the 74 notified childcare products notified in 2016 were categorized as furniture, meaning high chairs, wooden cots, wooden playpens and children’s chairs.

In the category for childcare articles and children’s equipment, notifications were equally split between compulsory and voluntary – seen as a demonstration of the effectiveness of the voluntary system. On a more somber note, three of these notifications resulted from incident reports – two involving safety gates and one relating to a baby carrier. In addition, one notification resulted from the accidental death of a child.

RAPEX data also showed the majority of notified products in this category came from EU and EEA countries. SGS is, however, warning against taking this data at face value as the origin of these products has often been inaccurately identified.

Safety gates have been identified as being responsible for several notifications but this may result from a recent report into safety barriers by PROSAFE, the European market surveillance organization. The main reasons given for the 21 notifications in this sub-category were entrapment, strength, snagging, failure of the locking mechanism and inappropriate construction, in this case insufficient height to provide a safe barrier.

The second largest sub-category of notified childcare articles and children’s equipment was cots, folding cots and cribs, which also identified entrapment and snagging as the main reasons for concern. In addition, insufficient strength was also a contributing factor in twelve notifications in this sub-category.

Under amber necklaces and bracelets, totaling ten notifications, small parts being potential choking hazards and the possible strangulation were the main reasons for recall. These two
hazards were also seen in other sub-categories, including children’s chairs, baby walkers and baby cushions.

The main hazard among all childcare articles and children’s equipment is entrapment, accounting for 24 notifications. In addition to safety gates, it was also identified as a problem in playpens, cots, folding cots, changing tables for folding cots, high chairs, pushchairs and prams.

Manufacturers should be aware of the potential hazards associated with childcare articles and children’s equipment. To help stakeholders stay informed, RAPEX produces weekly reports: RAPEX – Weekly Reports [https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumers_safety/safety_products/rapex/alerts/?event=main.listNotifications]

SGS Juvenile Product Services
SGS offers a wide range of services to ensure that products comply with relevant standards for childcare articles and children’s equipment. They provide consulting, training, product development, testing, audit and inspection services to ensure that products comply with strict regulations worldwide, demonstrating the safety and quality of juvenile products being brought to the market. Learn more about SGS’s Juvenile Product Services [www.sgs.com/en/consumer-goods-retail/toys-and-juvenile-products/juvenile-products-and-childcare-articles]

For further information contact:

Catherine Follin-Arbelet
Senior Expert, Juvenile Products
Email: crs.media@sgs.com
Website: www.sgs.com/hardlines

About SGS
SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 90,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 2,000 offices and laboratories around the world.

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This release was published on openPR.