Toys
(BRUSSELS) – More than half of all dangerous products detected by the EU’s ‘Safety Gate for dangerous products’ came from China, according to the European Commission’s 2018 report released Friday.
The report – formerly known as the Rapid Alert System – shows that authorities exchanged 2,257 alerts on dangerous products. Toys belonged to the most notified product category (31%), followed by ‘motor vehicles’ (19%), and ‘clothing, textiles and fashion items’ (10%), while the main risks flagged were chemical risks and injuries (25% each) followed by the choking risk for children (18%).
The Safety Gate rapid alert system enables quick exchange of information between 31 European countries and the Commission about dangerous non-food products posing a risk to health and safety of consumers.
“The Safety Gate is a key tool to protect Europeans from dangerous products and it really works,” said Consumer Commissioner Vera Jourova: “With more than 2,000 alerts and nearly double as many recalls and removals from the market, the report shows effective enforcement of the rules.”
Product recalls are one of the most common measures to reduce the risks posed by dangerous products, however the proportion of products successfully recovered from consumers remains generally low. The results of a new survey on the issue show that a third of respondents consciously continue to use recalled products, suggesting that recall notices may not have much effect on consumers and/or that the risk may not be communicated clearly enough.
More than half of all the detected dangerous products come from China. Cooperation with Chinese authorities in the product safety field continues to be a priority, but the results are mixed. The Commission continues to work with the competent Chinese authorities on this. This includes raising awareness about the product safety rules that need to be met when selling to EU consumers.
Since 2003, the EU’s ‘Rapid Alert system’ ensures that information about dangerous non-food products withdrawn from the market and/or recalled anywhere in Europe is quickly circulated between Member States and the Commission. This enables appropriate follow-up action (ban/stop of sales, withdrawal, recall or import rejection by Customs authorities) to be taken everywhere in the EU. The Rapid Alert System was renamed the Safety Gate.
The Safety Gate has a dedicated public website which provides access to weekly updates of alerts submitted by the national authorities participating in the system. Every week, around 50 alerts are registered and published on the web.
