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Household products should be recalled once they are involved in endangering personal and property safety

household products should be recalled once they are involved in endangering personal and property safety

March 11, 2016

[China paint information] cars have been recalled and children's toys have been recalled, but when it comes to household products, except for the initiative of a few enterprises, the recall seems to have nothing to do with this industry. This year, this embarrassment will be completely eliminated. The measures for the administration of recall of defective consumer goods clearly stipulates that from January 1, 20 categories of products such as children's furniture, household appliances and lighting appliances must be recalled if they endanger personal and property safety. Other consumer goods can also refer to this provision. This means that once it involves endangering personal and property safety, household products are no exception and will be recalled

knowledge

new regulations children's furniture manufacturers with defects must recall

the Beijing Times learned from the General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine that from January 1 this year, the "measures for the administration of recall of defective consumer goods" was officially implemented. The measure aims to "regulate the recall activities of defective consumer goods, prevent and eliminate the possible injuries caused by consumer goods defects, and ensure the personal and property safety of consumers", and include children's furniture, lighting appliances and other categories into the recall scope. Previously, the new version of the consumer protection law, which was implemented on March 15, 2014, clarified the recall obligations of operators for the first time and required operators to bear the necessary expenses incurred by consumers due to the recall of goods, but did not give a specific explanation of the specific categories of recall

according to the interpretation of the measures, the defect "refers to the situation that generally exists in the same batch, model or category of consumer goods due to design, manufacturing, warning signs and other reasons, which does not meet the requirements of national standards and industrial standards to ensure the safety of persons and property, or other unreasonable dangers that endanger the safety of persons and property", mainly aimed at products that endanger the safety of persons and property

the notice puts forward requirements for producers, operators and relevant competent departments, in which producers are "the subject of recall of defective consumer goods", and "if it is confirmed that consumer goods are defective, the investigation and analysis results shall be reported to the provincial quality inspection department where the producer is located, and immediate measures shall be taken to stop the production, sale and import of defective consumer goods and implement recall in accordance with the provisions of these measures", And "report the recall information of consumer goods outside China to the local provincial quality inspection department and the General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and Quarantine"

according to the measures, consumer goods subject to recall management include "electronic appliances" and "children's products", of which electronic appliances include 9 categories of products such as household appliances, lighting appliances and electric tools; Children's products include 11 categories of products, such as children's furniture, children's decorative products, children's clothing, etc

the measures also said that unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations, it should be followed, "other consumer goods that have not been listed in the catalogue and need to be recalled can be implemented with reference to these measures"

consumers can report defective products

the Beijing Times also found that Article 10 of the measures for the administration of recall of defective consumer goods stipulates that "any unit or individual can report the possible defects of consumer goods to the product quality supervision department." The defective products management center of the General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and Quarantine of the people's Republic of China will not only publish the product recall information and relevant laws and regulations at home and abroad, but also set up a defect information report for the public to reflect the relevant problems through the Internet, email and other platforms

the Beijing Times called the platform of the defective products management center of the General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and Quarantine of the people's Republic of China. The staff said that if consumers suspect that consumer goods at home, such as wooden furniture have peculiar smell, bed sheets contain carcinogens and other problems, regardless of whether there are corresponding testing documents, they can report and submit according to the "defect information report" on the defective products management center of the General Administration of quality and environmental inspection of the people's Republic of China. The defective product management center will have staff organize corresponding experts to analyze the problem to see whether it involves safety and batch problems. If it involves problems that endanger safety and are common to a batch of products, corresponding recall measures will be taken

common sense: recall is not equal to return

"recall" is not "the producer returns the sold defective products to the factory". The Beijing Times learned that "defective products" stipulates that "recall" refers to "the activities of consumer goods producers to take measures to eliminate defects or reduce or eliminate safety risks for defective consumer goods". There are two ways to recall. One is that consumers can return defective products, and the other is that manufacturers adopt certain facilities to eliminate potential safety hazards

in addition, in the understanding of many people, defective products are unqualified products, but insiders of the quality inspection department pointed out that the recalled products are not necessarily unqualified products. Defective products refer to the unscientific and unreasonable design, manufacturing process and use specifications, the possibility of injury in actual use, or the fact of injury

probing into the reasons

there are few recalls in the home furnishing industry

since the new consumer law clarified the operators' obligation to "recall" defective consumer goods, in 2014, the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce issued a list of defective goods, of which 26 batches of defective bedding products were found to be "dangerous to personal and property safety" because of pH value and the solution to the failure of a drawdown machine containing decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amines, And order the enterprises involved to perform the recall obligation. However, the investigation of the Beijing Times found that at that time, except for a few brands announcing the recall information on the official, most bedding enterprises turned a deaf ear to this. Industry insiders said in an interview that they had never heard of the "recall" of other enterprises except that IKEA would recall occasionally. The Beijing Times found that after the implementation of the new consumer law, the recalled products mainly focused on children's toys, notebook batteries or power cords and other related products. Although there are household products, they are relatively few. There have been recalls of imported baby bathtubs, food waste processors, ceiling lamps and other categories

for the home furnishing industry, there are often cases where harmful substances exceed the standard, or some materials such as glass and sharp corners hurt people. The home textile industry is often sampled for harmful substances, and the smart toilet was exposed to multiple injuries at the end of last year. Jinghua home also reported that the wooden bed of a furniture brand was inlaid with metal materials, resulting in accidental injuries to consumers. But why is there a rare domestic recall of household goods, or even unheard of

there are particularity in the industry

Sun Shudong, assistant director of the national furniture and indoor environmental quality supervision and inspection center, said that if there are unqualified products in wood-based panels, they will indeed be recalled; But there may be some special cases of furniture. "Many products are customized products, which are mostly designed and manufactured according to the requirements of the buyer. There may be a situation that the number of products of a single model is not too large." In addition, with regard to the problems of exceeding the standard of hazardous substances, even if the manufacturer changes the wood-based panel for the same batch and model of products, different results will appear. He believes that this objectively brings difficulties to furniture recall

Huang Xinhong, Secretary General of the intelligent bathroom branch of China Ceramic Industry Association, believes that other recalled products are assembly line products of the same specification and model, "it is OK to replace a certain spare part after recall". However, in terms of intelligent toilets, it is relatively simple if it is only the cover plate, but if it involves the overall product, it is not only related to the circuit itself, but also closely related to the installation. "The operation is troublesome and the cost is relatively high." He believes that even if the recall is necessary, it should be treated differently from other products

IKEA, which releases recall information from time to time, said in an interview with the Beijing times that the cost of product recall is mainly reflected in the product itself, the cost of operating smart energy, and the cost of developing high nickel 811 battery products since 2014. It also requires enterprises to have a complete and rigorous workflow in the recall work to ensure the continuity and consistency of all links

most enterprises avoid public issues

manufacturers do not pay enough attention to the safety of furniture structure. Sun Shudong took the sampling inspection experience of the national standard of children's furniture implemented for nearly four years as an example. The standard mainly focuses on the protection of children's safety, but there are many furniture enterprises that have failed the previous sampling inspection, and some enterprises will argue if they fail to pass the inspection. "If no measures are taken for unqualified products, how can we talk about the recall?"

home textile products have been exposed to be unqualified for many times, and there have even been recall records. When the Beijing Times interviewed the Secretary General of a home textile association, the Secretary General also insisted that the unqualified rate of the industry mainly occurred in the shrinkage rate, unqualified marks and other aspects, "there are basically no projects involving safety hazards, so there is no recall involved"

some manufacturers worry that the recall will lead consumers to think that the stores or manufacturers are not strict in product production and control, so they prefer to keep a low profile. The researchers of the academy have successfully developed a new type of nanocomposite cuisine. IKEA doesn't recognize this, "Once problems and potential hidden dangers are found in the process of product sampling, sales and customer use, our primary task is to prevent consumers and employees from being injured in the process of using the product, and investigate the causes of the problems while immediately suspending sales. According to the specific situation, Ikea will take measures such as off shelf suspension, recall and repair, and product recall, with the purpose of ensuring the interests and safety of consumers to the greatest extent." 。

insufficient cognition of the whole society

during the interview, it was also found that no matter the manufacturer, association or industry insiders, they are very unfamiliar with the recall, and even their understanding of the recall is inaccurate. Many people summarized it as an after-sales problem. "Generally, the manufacturer will solve the problems of the products reported by customers in a very timely manner, so there is no recall." Industry insiders also believe that safety hazards can be eliminated simply from the perspective of product design, and there will be no recall

on the other hand, the collective cognition of consumers and manufacturers also leads to the rare recall. Sun Shudong said, "in case of furniture injury accidents, in fact, both businesses and consumers will not be aware of the safety problems from the perspective of the product itself. It is more to find the reasons from the perspective of carelessness and carelessness than from the perspective of product design and production."

although IKEA said that consumers are very concerned about the product recall information and will communicate with IKEA through different channels such as, contacts, new media and so on, it also admitted that "there are not many people who really return and exchange goods in IKEA stores"