European Commission resolution 2010/376/EU entered into force on 26 July 2010, establishing safety requirements for five categories of common children’s bedroom items.
Data shows that children aged 0-5 spend at least half of their time sleeping each day, so it is essential to ensure that items in this environment do not harm children.
The European Commission, under General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC, established specific regulations requiring EU standardization bodies to develop harmonized standards to reduce risks associated with five categories of common children's bedroom products. These products are crib mattresses, sleeping bags, crib bumpers, baby hammocks, and duvets, and the associated risks include:
• Baby mattresses: Poorly designed mattresses can pose a risk of entanglement and suffocation. For example, a mattress that is too small, leaving gaps around the edges, can cause a child to become trapped or suffocate. Products that do not meet flammability regulations also pose a risk.
• Baby sleeping bags and crib bumpers: Risk of strangulation, suffocation and choking due to exposed straps, loops, removable parts or filling.
• Baby hammocks: Due to poor design, especially unstable structure, they can cause children to get trapped, suffocate, and get injured.
• Down comforters for children: Risk of suffocation and overheating, especially when safety information is lacking. Down comforters may also cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) due to overheating and suffocation.
Specific safety regulations for the above five product categories are set out in the Annex to European Commission resolution 2010/376/EU. For example, mattresses must not ignite when exposed to flame or sparks, or if they do, they must burn slowly. Other regulations include limits on strap length; the filling of the product must not be so soft as to cling tightly to a child's face and obstruct breathing; mattresses must not have sharp edges or corners, etc. Children's down comforters must not pose a fire hazard, and products using animal materials must meet hygiene standards. Comforters must be breathable to ensure that infants can breathe even when their faces are covered while sleeping.
In the future, European standardization bodies will publish standards for industry players to follow. Details of the safety research can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/safety/projects/ongoing-projects_en.htm#project_results.
The contents of European Commission resolution 2010/376/EU are available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:170:0039:0048:EN:PDF.
–Source: UNCTAD.org
