Health risks from chemical substances, such as excessive levels of phthalates or endocrine disruptors in toys, were the most frequently reported type of risk on the EU safety portal in 2022, across a wider range of products, according to the annual report of the non-food rapid alert system, published by the European Commission on Monday 13 March for the previous year.
Toys and motor vehicles topped the list of notified dangerous products for the second consecutive year, with China (50%) as the main country of origin for toys (see EUROPE 12938/5). For toys, 35% of the alerts concerned chemical substance-related risks.
In 2022, the authorities in the 30 countries participating in the Safety Gate network (EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) responded to 2,117 alerts and took 3,932 follow-up actions.
Presenting the report to the press, Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders stressed the importance of international cooperation, especially with China, for which a training programme already exists. He spoke of fruitful discussions with the US on financial services and product safety, noting “shared concerns”. He also indicated that a trilateral EU-China-US meeting was held a month ago in Florida, in which Chinese customs authorities participated.
It is in the interest of Chinese consumers too, he said, as there is a “growing middle class asking for safe products” in the country.
He welcomed the progress made with the ‘WebCrawler’, “a great tool” for electronic monitoring launched last year to help regulators track down online offers and suppliers, allowing them to order the removal of dangerous product offers more quickly.
Over the past six months, the tool has processed 939 alerts, which resulted in the analysis of almost 616,000 websites, “instead of checking sites one by one”, explained Mr Reynders.
And he added: “1,000 people have already taken part in a training course organised by the Commission and by the end of the year consumer organisations will also be able to use this electronic monitoring - including sending messages to shops”.
In addition, 11 online shopping platforms have now joined the voluntary product safety commitments and 98% of the dangerous products identified on the platforms were removed within two working days. The Commissioner called for more platforms to get involved.
In his view, the adoption of the EU Regulation on General Product Safety in the Digital Age (see EUROPE 13073/2) will help create a level playing field in the internal market.
Annual report: https://aeur.eu/f/5r5 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)