Battery Safety Symposium Scheduled for October 2012
Product Safety Regulators from around the world have Joined Forces Seeking Engineering Solutions to Coin/Button Cell Battery Ingestion Hazard. A symposium on button battery hazards will be held during the World Health Organization’s 11th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Wellington, New Zealand, October 1-4, 2012. The joint committee is calling for papers and presentations at the symposium. For more information please follow this link.
The group aims to establish what is the state of the art in product traceability in the EU, in particular in some key non-food consumer products, with a view to identifying the potential areas for improvement. For more information please follow this The group aims to establish what is the state of the art in product traceability in the EU, in particular in some key non-food consumer products, with a view to identifying the potential areas for improvement. For more information please follow this link.
EU-China Joint Product Surveillance On 20 March 2012
The European Commission and AQSIQ agreed to launch their first joint product safety surveillance action. This project will explore coordinating product safety controls between EU Member State Authorities and Chinese authorities throughout the whole supply chain up to the final customer. For more information please follow this link.
Joint market surveillance projects between EU Member States 2012
The Commission supports market surveillance cooperation between the Member States, coordinated through PROSAFE, through financial assistance for joint surveillance actions. In 2012 Member States will participate in a single joint action with a horizontal element and four product-related sub-projects, focusing on childcare articles, fireworks, battery chargers and lawn mowers. For more information please follow this link.
OAS Consumer Safety and Health Network (CSHN) Graduate Course “The Management of Market Surveillance Systems on Consumer Product Safety”
The course aims to strengthen the technical capacity of institutions in the region, through the study of the foundations of consumer products safety systems, mainly in Europe and North America, for its analysis and contrast with the situations and needs of the countries in the hemisphere. For more information please follow this link.
Australia
Recent issues include a compulsory recall of ‘do it yourself’ teeth whitening products; Launch of the Battery Controlled Campaign; New and revised mandatory product safety standards and the Release of new and improved mandatory reporting form. For more information please follow this link.
Korea
Recent policy and regulatory developments include a revision of the Framework Act on Product Safety and a revision of the Quality Management and Consumer Products Safety Act" and "the Electric Appliances Safety Act". South Korea has also entered into a cooperation agreement with Peru and has published recall data from 2011. For more information please follow this link.
Brazil
Brazil is playing host to an International Workshop on Conformity Assessment on the 14th and 15th May. Recent regulatory action in Brazil has targeted breast implants and baby stroller with new regulations and mandatory conformity assessment schemes being published. Brazil has also launched its own Rapid Alert System on Recalls. For more information please follow this link.
Columbia
A new consumer protection law entered into force in Columbia on the 12th of April. The new regime strengthens the protection to consumer rights as per international standards on consumer protection legislation. For more information please follow this link.
New Zealand
A new consumer law reform bill has been published. The bill provides contains a variety of new provisions in respect of consumer product safety. For more information please follow this link.
Canada
Tina Green is the new Director General of Consumer Product Safety Directorate (CPSD) at Health Canada. For more information please follow this link.
Archived Stories
Fourth Biennial United States-China Consumer Product Safety Summit
The United States played host to the fourth biennial Consumer Product Safety Summit with China on the 13th and 14th of October in Washington D.C.. For more information on the outcome of the summit please click here.
OECD workshop on risk assessment, 20 April 2012
On 20 April 2012, the OECD Working Party on Consumer Product Safety will hold a workshop on risk assessment in Tel-Aviv, Israel. More information can be found here.
North American Consumer Product Safety Summit 26-27 September
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Health Canada, and the Consumer Protection Federal Agency of the United Mexican States (Profeco) held a first-of-its-kind consumer product safety Summit that was aimed at strengthening the protections for children and consumers throughout North America. For more information about the outcome of the summit click here.
News from Canada
Health Canada and China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) met in Ottawa for the Second Canada-China Consumer Product Safety Dialogue on October 11, 2011. The purpose of the Dialogue was to provide an opportunity for high level officials from Canada and China to further enhance consumer product safety cooperation, as well as to discuss bilateral initiatives for future engagements. For more information click here.
Enhancing Toy Safety in the European Union
The EU is engaged on a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing toy safety in the EU. These include
Click here for more details
Joint Market Surveillance Projects in the EU in 2012
The European Commission supports market surveillance cooperation between the Member States, coordinated through PROSAFE, through financial assistance for joint surveillance actions. In 2012, Member States will participate in a number of different Joint Actions encompassing a wide range of product specific and horizontal activities. For more information click here.
Current actions in the field of standardization under the EU General Product Safety Directive
Standards play an important role under the General Product Safety Directive. The European Commission is promoting number of standards projects in support of the Directive. For more information please click here.
Roundtable in China on Product Safety
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, is an enterprise that supports Chinese and German authorities in developing and implementing common product-safety standards for mutually important products on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. GIZ is owned by the German Federal government. More information on their recent roundtable in China can be found by clicking here.
Organization of American States Consumer Safety and Health Network
On November 15, 16 and 17, 2011, the Consumer Safety and Health Network for the Americas (CSHN), which is coordinated by the Organization of American States (OAS) in alliance with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), co-organized, together with the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) of Colombia, the Seminar on Damages Repair for Defective Products and the Sixth CSHN Technical Advisory Group Meeting in Bogotá, Colombia. For more information please click here.
Recent developments in Australia
The ACCC’s recent work in the product safety area has included the launch of the 2011 national pre-Christmas toy survey which is part of the national product safety surveillance program schedule. Another key piece of work has been the development of a Recalls Australia iPhone application to engage more innovatively with consumers and suppliers to provide information on consumer good recalls. For more information click here.
Consumer Law Reform Bill in New Zealand
A major review of Consumer Law in New Zealand is being undertaken and a Bill has been drafted to put proposed changes before the New Zealand Parliament. Other recent developments include a discount stores project, button battery safety initiative and a review of two product standards cited in New Zealand legislation. For more information click here.
News from Brazil
The Brazilian Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) has a new four year regulatory Agenda. For more information click here.
Results of Electrical Safety Conference in the UK
The Electrical Safety Council’s recent Product Safety Conference brought together a wide range of speakers and delegates to discuss the latest developments in market surveillance and electrical product safety. For more information click here.
Electrical Safety Stakeholder Event in the UK
The UK Electrical Safety Council held its first ever stakeholder event on the 15 November 2011. For more information click here.
Older Archived stories
International pilot alignment project on standards
The European Commission, together with product safety authorities from Australia, Canada and the United States, has launched a pilot project to improve the safety of products through bringing about highly-effective and closely-aligned safety requirements.
The pilot project covers selected products which can be dangerous for children:
In launching this project, the participants are looking to agree a common view of the hazards posed by these products and the safety measures required to manage these hazards.
The pilot project aims to deliver concrete results over the course of 2011 and 2012.
For more information from the EU click here.
Implementation of the European Union's New Legislative Framework
The European Commission is working towards the implementation of the New Legislative Framework, the modernisation of the New Approach for marketing of products. For more information click here.
Revision of the European Union's General Product safety Directive
Considerable progress is being made with the revision of the EU's General Product Safety Directive. For more details click here.
Other archived stories from the different jurisdictions are available by following the links above.