Current activites in the field of child safety within CEN aand ISO

Abstract

Many countries have implemented safety and performance requirements for children's products. There is, however, a need to harmonize existing legislation and standards to facilitate a uniform flow of trade. At the same time, it is essential to extend existing requirements to restrict certain hazards which have not been covered in the past. In CEN, the European Committee for standardization, several technical committees are developing European Standards for products to be used by or for children. On a global level as well, within ISO, there are standardization projects covering such products. Child safety is the main objective for the standardization work on: •Safety of toys (CENATC 52, ISO/TC 181) • Child use and care articles (CEN/TC 252) •Playground equipment for children LCEN/TC 136/SC 1) • Children's furniture (CEN/TC 207, ISO/TC 136( •Child-resistant packaging (CEN/TC 261/SC 2, ISO/TC 122) Children's products constitute a group of consumer products with large variations between the different products. Nevertheless, since they all come in contact with children (and their parents), several hazards associated with these products are similar for the various products. This is reflected in the work of CEN/TC 252, Child use and care articles, established in 1990. To establish a horizontal framework for the hazard-based approach, CEN/ TC 252 created a working group with the task to specify general and common safety requirements (WG 6). Five working groups started the elaboration of product standards in parallel. The traditional concept of a standardization project was found inadequate and other solutions were sought. Finally, it was decided to combine the results from working group 6 into one guidance document, to be published as a CEN Report.