It would probably come as a great shock for most parents to know that many of the products they trustfully purchase for use by babies and toddlers are not safety tested. It is likely that they would be further discomforted to know that, although for most products safety standards exist, they are not always mandatory.
In a culture widely recognised as one of the most ‘safety conscious’ in the world, where wearing of seatbelts and helmets is compulsory, pools are generally fenced and speed limits are relatively slow, it is a small wonder that parents of young children should be surprised.
“I think because our society takes such a strong safety stance on so many overt issues, there is a general misconception that if a person buys a product it is safety and quality tested,” said Mario Battaglia, the General Manager of Product Certification at SAI Global. “This particularly applies to children’s products. In most cases, these fall out of the ambit of the kind of rigorous mandatory standards and testing that many people would expect or even believe them to have undergone before sale.”
One area that is an exception – perhaps proving the rule – is child car safety restraints. Like a number of other children’s products, such as cots, strollers, dummies and so forth, there are certain mandatory Standards relating to their safety and performance.
Unlike other children’s product areas, however, the manufacturers or distributors of child car safety restraints have voluntarily undertaken not only to have their products meet a Standard that is actually more stringent and up-to-date than the mandatory Standard, but also to have the products concerned independently tested and certified as meeting that Standard.
The mandatory Standard for compliance is AS/NZS 1754:2000 Child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles, which although offers good protection, does not include the latest in, for example, side impact protection as has been incorporated into the latest 2004 Standard.
For parents and the community in general, this offers the great advantage of knowing that every child restraint on the market in this country meets safety standards that are among the highest in the world.
Given that according to Kidsafe, Australia’s peak child accident prevention body, each year around 6500 children need medical attention, some 540 are admitted to hospital and 10 die, due to injuries relating to use of nursery furniture, one would have to question whether the child car safety restraint model should also be applied to other key children’s product categories.
Mike Lumley is Technical Director at Britax, one of the biggest names in children’s products internationally, perhaps better known in this country for its Safe ‘n’ Sound and Steelcraft brands.
After more than 18 years in the business, he summarises the position of his industry.
“We see the requirement to have all car restraint products certified to the best available Standard as part of being good corporate citizens and making the best product we can,”
he said. “We like to stay ahead of the game. Many of us are actively involved on the Standards Committee concerned, we are aware of what the issues are, what the improvements are and frankly, we want to be selling products that reflect them.
“As an industry it has actually been a benefit to adopt the one standard and follow it – having the “Five Ticks” StandardsMark is a great way of demonstrating the quality and performance of our products. It says to the market: we take no shortcuts and we are happy for a third party to come in and check us over to make sure we are doing the right thing. I think that has to be a benefit to all concerned, especially babies, children and