• Partnership - an acknowledgment that all have a part to play in improving the safety of infant products

• Government Involvement - a role as catalyst and facilitator with proactive monitoring of the market, complaints investigations, developing certain standards, networking nationally and internationally, educating and informing traders and consumers, developing policy, and encouraging self-regulation

• Standards - the use of mandatory standards where they are seen as the best approach to achieving safety
  • Education - the distribution of material and the use of programmes and campaigns on specific areas of consumer safety

  • Information - the collection of data about injuries, product information and compliance strategies

  • Self-regulation - the establishment of codes of practice, monitoring and compliance frameworks administered by the relevant industries.

Voluntary Code of Practice working with Food Regulations:

• has infrastructure

• has policing and sanctions

• has public message

• is flexible and cost efficient

• promotes fair practice.

Principles of fair practice:

• creativity stops where adulteration begins

• manipulations harm is the industry and consumer.

Self Regulation through Industry Compliance Committee (ICC).

Breaches of Code:

• first breach - warning and further testing

• subsequent breach/es - publish test results, advise government enforcement agencies, institute proceedings for damages.

Benefits of Self-Regulation:

• good and healthy image for the industry

• minimises government involvement

• ensures free and fair competition

• gains internationally recognised standards

• increases sales volume.

• 94% of deaths comprised of children aged between 0 and 2.

• Stationary cots and portable cots were responsible for 68% and bunk beds were responsible for 20% of infant product related deaths.

• 71% of infant product related deaths were as a result of suffocation and respiratory obstruction. 11% resulted from the infant being caught in or between an object.

2000 infant product related hospitalisations 1985-1994.

46% of infant product related hospitalisations involved infants between 0 and 2.
• 31% of those hospitalisations resulted from use of bunk beds, 7% from cots or portable cots and 37% from beds.

• 92% of infant product related hospitalisations were as a result of the infant suffering a fall. Of those falls 36% were from beds, 33% were from bunk beds.

• 43% of hospitalisations involved infants suffering head injuries, 36% of injuries related to fractured limbs and 8% of injuries involved a fractured skull.

• Most common nursery furniture products associated with infant injuries are prams, cots, high chairs, baby walkers, strollers, change tables and bouncinettes

• Injuries associated with nursery furniture are most likely to occur in the first year of life

• Over 3,500 nursery furniture injuries are suffered by infants aged under 1 year

• Of 13 deaths between 1985-1994, over 75% of those occurred from use of cots

• Falls are the major cause of non-fatal injury.

Major Hazards:

• Cots - entrapment , modifications, protrusions

• Bouncinettes - falls

• Babywalkers - falls involving steps and stairs

• High chairs - inadequate restraints to prevent falls

• Prams and Stroller - falls, entrapment asphyxiation, deficient safety harnesses or lack of use, overloading strollers with shopping

• Change tables - lack of restraining devices to prevent falls.

Key Recommendations:

• Mandating of cot standard

• Voluntary standards for baby walkers, high chairs and change tables

• Increase compliance with voluntary standards via industry co-operation and public education

• Mandating where voluntary standards are ineffective

• Improved hospital data collection

• Point-of-sale information about the correct use of products and the associated hazards for parents and caregivers

• Community service television advertisements to support interventions.

• developing standards and standards related publications
• assessing products and certifying products for conformance to a particular standard
• providing information services on standards
• NZ's representative in the ISO and various other international standards organisations

Standards are used as:

• a means of achieving safety and reliability of products

• technical means of complying with regulations

• guidance on good practice.

Making use of standards in infant safety area:

• provides manufacturer design requirements for preventing accidents

• provides regulators with a practical method for defining minimum requirements

• provides consumers with a benchmark for purchasing decisions
• can be used with confidence as they have all been developed at the request of the community using public consultation processes and input from a wide range of interested groups.

• information provision, including guidelines on each of the product safety standards

• complaint handling

• enforcement

• court action.

Enforcement of Product Safety Standards:

• product safety issues identified via complaints from public or competitors, information from other government agencies such as MCA or Customs Dept, or from pro-active inspection programme which Commission operates

• use of investigation criteria, for example size and spread of consumer loss, repeated breaches of Act by traders, or need to clarify the law or provide a deterrent

• if there appears to be a prima facie breach of a mandatory product safety standard the Commission will investigate the matter

• if an investigation establishes an apparent prima facie breach the Commission will take action in the form of a warning, obtain a settlement, negotiate a voluntary recall or take court action

Mandatory standards do not guarantee safe products because:

• non-complying goods are still sold

• not all potential hazards are covered by the standard

• standards only apply up to when the goods are purchased, not to modifications of the product or when warnings are not followed.

• aim to advance the interests of the juvenile products industry

• encourage use of its products

• collect and disseminate information

• promote safety awareness and voluntary standards

• project a positive image to the industry to the public.

• knowledge of injury avoidance and familiarity with the product

• design guidelines and minimum standard levels to support the designer and provide a means of evaluating a product, particularly as most children's products are imported

• a quality system e.g. Certification

• maintenance of quality to ensure all products meet the minimal level of safety

Britax has sought testing for all of its product to ensure compliance and product safety.
Some Australian and NZ companies import or manufacture without testing to determine the level of safety of their products.

Britax recommends a mandatory standard for all popular children's products, similar to the Toy Standard:

• requiring all products meet minimum safety standards. Low cost products not meeting standard would not be permitted, and any injuries would lead to further improvement of the standard

• cover all manufacturers and importers

• must be one standard appropriate to the identified risks not just taking on the CEN standard or acceptance of non-equivalent standards - which leads to confusion.

Strategies:

• Information - What's going on, Who's doing what, and How to information, research into injury patterns and risk factors

• Building Coalitions and Networks - sharing information and combining efforts to create more effective prevention interventions

• Strengthen Individual Knowledge and Skills - provide practical assistance to caregivers in the form of counseling education or knowledge

• Educate the Community - to raise awareness about child injury issues, change public attitudes or provide prevention information

• Educate Existing (and Potential) Providers

• Change Organisational Practices to an increased emphasis on child injury prevention

• Influence Public Policy and Legislation.

Approaches to the issue of infant products:

• Gather information on the product in question, seeking information from overseas about their experience, opinion from those involved in implementation of safety controls, and soft data including opinions and preferences

• Use networks to share information and raise awareness on the issue

• develop strategies to improve the safety of the product

• educate parents and families on an individual level

• community education

• educating people who sell the product to parents

• raise awareness within the industry and encourage action to improve or ensure the safety of the product

• approach government agencies to request appropriate intervention

Toys, cots, and highchairs are usually a luxury rather than a norm.

• Maori usually purchase second hand equipment if any at all

• a high proportion of Maori women are sole parent families and cannot afford safety products for their children.

Safety issues are not a priority with most whanau. This is mainly because of their living standards, the location of Maori mothers and distance costs.

We need to ask where Maori women are placed economically in view of safety standards.

• Pacific Islands consumers do not access information through printed form

• practical demonstration is the most effective way of providing information to Pacific Islands consumers.

Pacific Islands consumers are unlikely to return a product to the retailer. From Pacific Islands perspective it is the responsibility of the retailer to demonstrate the safe use of a product.

Plunket believes nursery products should come under mandatory standards as:

• self regulating by manufacturers and importers is not working

• there is no incentive for manufacturers and importers to certify to the voluntary product standard

• the cost of standard certification is taking priority over child safety

  this ensures optimum safety and public confidence in product safety