PRODUCT SAFETY and RECALLS in Southeast Asia and Malaysia

Australia: Neuroscience Research Australia’s Dr Julie Brown and Dr Chris Mulligan from Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, have begun talks with indoor trampoline park operators and Standards Australia to develop a new set of industry-wide safety guidelines for the popular venues. This follows a study that investigated the types of injuries resulting from indoor trampoline use in children under the age of 16. The aim of the study, published in Injury Prevention, was to help shape and inform a safety code of practice. The study found that over a six-month period, 40 children reported to the paediatric emergency department at Sydney Children’s Hospital. The most common injuries were soft tissue injuries or sprains (55%), and fractured bones (37.5%). “Unlike domestic trampolines, where the majority of injuries occur from falling off, most trampoline park injuries occur on the trampoline surface itself,” says Dr Chris Mulligan. “Contributing factors include multipl

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Commissioner Bob Adler stated that CPSC’s job is to ensure product safety, not pick economic winners or losers. In 2015, table saw accidents were responsible for 33'400 emergency room visits and 4'700 amputations - in the United States. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) held a public hearing on August 9, 2017 on table saw safety. Since 2006, the Commission has considered adopting a mandatory safety standard for table saws.The standard would require all saws distributed within the United States to be equipped with active injury mitigation (AIM) technology, a term that describes technology that limits the depth of cut to an approaching body part to 3.5 mm. CPSC voted 5-0 to move forward on an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on blade injuries in 2011, CPSC staff then conducted an analysis of table saw injury data, and in January of 2017, published a package that included the findings and recommendati

proposal aims to achieve a single standard that allows consumer goods and services providers  to  address  all  the  life-cycle  issues  of  privacy  by  design  so  that  through  its  use  and  proven compliance  consumers  can  make  goods  purchases  and use  services  with  greater  confidence that privacy protection has been designed into the products.    The recent reports on the hack of a dozen Malaysian telcom providers and jobseeking websites and stolen information from CIMB found that the personal information of nearly every single citizen was affected by the leak or theft. Media report cited that the online technology site lowyat.net said the hackers have the home addresses, identity card numbers, SIM card information and private details of almost the entire Malaysian population of 32 million. Many Malaysians have several mobile numbers. In addition, 81,309 records from the Malaysian Medical Council, the Malaysian Medical Association and the Malaysian Dental Associat

Apabila anda mencuci rambut, membersih atau melembapkan kulit, menggunakan bahan solek, ‘deodorant’ atau pelindung UV, pernakah anda berfikir sama ada produk-produk tersebut selamat atau tidak? Sama ada produk – produk tersebut memudaratkan atau tidak kepada anda, keluarga anda dan alam sekitar? Amalan baik dasar perlindungan pengguna adalah ‘seller beware’ (caveat venditor) atau peniaga perlu berhati-hati tetapi kelemahan dalam dasar dan undang – undang perlindungan pengguna kosmetik di kebanyakan negara adalah berdasarkan ‘buyer beware’ (caveat emptor) atau pembeli perlu berhati-hati.  Produk kosmetik tidak mengandungi risiko yang tinggi seperti ubat-ubatan yang memerlukan ujian yang mendalam dan pengesahan badan kawalan ubat-ubatan, kosmetik dan makanan.  Di Malaysia pelbagai aduan daripada penguna-pengguna kosmetik telah diterima oleh pusat aduan pengguna yang ditadbir oleh agensi kerajaan ataupun badan-badan bukan kerajaan (NGO). Kombinasi ‘Fake News’ atau khabar

Experts from Rentokil Initial Working Together With Key Industry Leaders And Food Safety Auditors To Improve Food Safety In Malaysia PR NEWSWIRE ASIA  Oct 06, 2017 Food and beverage product recalls can lead to far-reaching consequences, affecting business reputation and profit losses. However, one of the biggest impacts in food contamination is how it affects consumers' health. In 2015 alone, 14,433 of food poisoning cases were reported in Malaysia. These illnesses can be fatal if not treated immediately . Unfortunately for Malaysians, food poisoning fatalities are more likely to happen in the country due to its hot weather. Scientific studies have shown that microbes such as bacteria, parasites or viruses multiply 10 times faster the moment food is exposed to heat. More here...

May 5, 2017 SAFEGUARDS | Toys & Juvenile Products NO. 076/1 7 Malaysia has expanded its list of standards for demonstrating compliance with the nation’s toy safety requirements. The newly recognized standards will become effective on January 1, 2018. The Consumer Protection (Safety Standards for Toys) Regulations 2009 [P.U. (A) 275/2009 [1]], referred to as the ‘Principal Regulations’ in these Regulations, govern toy safety in Malaysia and fall under the Consumer Protection Act of 1999. Under the ‘Principal Regulations’, the First Schedule contains a defined list of Malaysian standards (MS and MS ISO) for toy safety. The ‘Principal Regulations’ were amended by the Consumer Protection (Safety Standards for Toys) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (P.U. (A) 252/2010 [2]), which designated MS 62115:2008 as a replacement for MS 1725:2004 for electric toy safety. The last change was in October 2016, when Malaysia published the Consumer Protection (Safety Standards for Toys)

5th October, 2017 PARENTS and caregivers are urged to only buy car seats that meet mandatory Australian safety standards. The warning from the Office of Fair Trading comes after product safety officers spotted a non-compliant car restraint for sale online. Listings for the product, which was promoted as a Safety Baby Child Car Seat - Toddler infant convertible booster, have since been taken down but the OFT warns similar unsafe good can be marketed under various names and may be available on sites like eBay or Gumtree. Fair Trading executive director Brian Bauer said the easiest way to confirm a car seat or restraint is safe is by checking whether it meets the mandatory Australian safety standard. "Look for a label that says Complies with Australian Standard AS/NZS 1754 - if you can't see this, don't buy it,” Mr Bauer said. "If a car restraint does not meet the mandatory safety standard, it is unlikely to be able to protect a child adequat

Takata airbag recalls affecting Australian consumers Published: 21 Sep 2017 Drivers are strongly urged to check whether their motor vehicle has been recalled to replace faulty Takata airbags. These recalls affect a large number of car makes and models, and a small number of motorcycles and trucks. There have been serious injuries and deaths from faulty Takata airbags. The inflator components may deteriorate and subsequently mis-deploy in an incident causing metal fragments to propel out of the airbag. more

" Since the appearance of plastic rice rumors in 2011, we have been unable to locate any substantiated reports that anyone successfully passed off plastic rice off as the real thing regularly (or ever) in any of the countries in which the rumor took root. As a case study from Indonesia illustrated thoroughly, the rumor was self-promoting: one woman exposed to the plastic rice rumor became ill and presumed the fake food she’d heard about was to blame. Faulty initial testing cemented the belief, and soon many people were attributing all illnesses to the specter of plastic rice. A few follow-up items reported that thorough testing had revealed the rice in question was not plastic or was simply adulterated, yet the claim went on to make the alternative health rounds in October 2016 unencumbered by the debunkings. All versions stemmed from one shaky item published in January 2011 and plastic rice lived in realm of legend until 21 December 2016, when the BBC published an article repo

In October 2014, the Malaysian Association of Standards Users raised concerns with Ministry of Transport and the Road Transport Department (JPJ) about the fatal airbag problem which was first reported in the United States. A year later discussions were held to investigate the matter and at that time the draft of a new Malaysian Standard on product safety and recalls management for suppliers was being finalized. Frustrated with the limited sense of urgency among regulators on the safety of airbags in cars on Malaysia roads, Standards Users studied and published a position paper on Auto Industry in Malaysia with regards to safety and performance. The position paper briefly maps out the plethora of agencies involved in the private automotive sector. We call this situation too many cooks spoil the soup. In short, calling for a centralized product safety commission and a road vehicle safety authority.  Here is why: The National Consumers Complaints Centre (NCCC) reports millions of R

We have come to the end of the first quarter of 2017 and it has been relatively quiet with regards to product safety here in Malaysia. The media industry have a saying “no news is good news”. Quite the contrary, the European Union has issued 188 recall notices since January 1st 2017,  in the children, toy, electrical appliances and household chemical product categories alone. Toy recalls account for 67% of all these recalls. Slightly over 90% of all these recalls area categorized as serious risk. Glue containing higher than allowed chloroform, pacifiers with holder chain posing strangulation risk to babies and toddlers, electrical bread-maker posing fire risks, toys posing risk associated with high levels of phthalates (hormone disruptor) and chargers without double insulation are among the products recalled from the EU market. To date the EU rapex (European Union Rapid Alert System) had recorded 450 recall notices across all general consumer product categories (excluding food, drugs

In February 2017, my friend shared a recall news of cans of bumble bee tuna being recalled due to content of human remains. then there was news of pet food imported from Thailand was contaminated with HIV blood and so on. Last year it was glass pieces in Nestle baby cereals . Most of these news are shared over social media and what is shared on social media especially gory contamination of food intended for vulnerable groups travel like wild fire. Not only that, they resurface after going cold for a couple of years.   Probably distrust on industry and some regulators and limited information on product recall in the media, results in concerned parents to share these kinds of news they receive via social media. Large companies like Nestle are able to capture fake news and issue statement to correct the situation. pet food traders in Malaysia have never issued any such statements. We do not come across these statements at retail outlets when replenishing our pet food stocks pe