On June 28, 2016, the China Toy and Baby Products Association held a press conference in Beijing to announce the self declaration of product standards for automotive child safety seat manufacturers. The group standard "Safety Requirements for Motor Vehicle Child Occupant Restraint Systems: Usability, Production Consistency, and Chemical Safety" was released and implemented, and 15 automotive child safety seat companies self declared and implemented it. More than 100 people from 19 standard drafting units and nearly 40 media outlets attended the meeting. Leaders from the Consumer Goods Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and the Enforcement and Supervision Department of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine attended the meeting.

15 car child safety seat companies publicly declare implementation of higher product safety standards

The casualty rate of using safety seats incorrectly is higher than not using safety seats

Buying a car child safety seat is equivalent to purchasing a "safety insurance" for the baby's transportation. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shandong, Hangzhou, Nanjing and other provinces and cities have successively issued regulatory documents stipulating that children must use safety seats when traveling by car. It is important to require consumers to use safety seats through regulations, but ensuring that every safety seat used by consumers can provide protection is currently a crucial issue.

Due to unclear weight and age groups, unclear labeling, and unclear instruction manuals, car child safety seat products can easily lead to consumers making incorrect choices, installations, or uses. In the event of a traffic accident, not only can it fail to protect children's safety, but it can also result in higher rates of child injury or death. According to the 2013 survey data by the Japan Police Agency/Japan Autonomous Vehicle Alliance, the serious injury and mortality rate of children under 6 years old who use safety seats correctly is 0.57%; The serious injury and mortality rate caused by incorrect use of safety seats is 3.05%; The serious injury and mortality rate without using safety seats is 2.19%.

Why do safety seats fail to pass market inspections

Since 2013, the China Toy and Baby Products Association has organized six surveys on car child safety seats sold in the market during the "Brand Self discipline China Tour" activity, and conducted dynamic collision testing and inspection on purchased products in accordance with national standards. The results indicate that some products have issues such as excessive head displacement, component breakage, failure of locking devices, and missing or incorrect warnings and instructions. Among products that do not meet the standard requirements, the proportion of head displacement exceeding the standard is relatively high, with 50.00% in 2014, 71.43% in 2015, and 41.02% in 2016; The second highest proportion is the lack or error of warnings and explanations, with 16.67% in 2014, 21.43% in 2015, and 41.02% in 2016. This result directly reflects that if there is no sound product consistency control system established within the automotive child safety seat enterprise, certified products will be qualified, but products produced in bulk and entering the market will still have quality problems.

The group standard T/CTJPA 004-2016, which is stricter than the national standard for the safety requirements of restraint systems for child occupants of motor vehicles: ease of use, production consistency, and chemical safety, was released and implemented on September 1, 2016. Nearly 100 products from 18 brands of 15 companies have self declared and implemented higher standards

Promoting the establishment of self declaration and supervision system for enterprise product standards is an important means to promote quality upgrading under the new situation, and also an important lever for building a "streamlining, managing, and governing" quality improvement. The public commitment of enterprises to implement stricter product quality standards not only demonstrates their determination to value product quality, continuously improve product quality, and effectively ensure consumer safety, but also reflects their confidence in accepting supervision and oversight from the government, associations, media, and consumers. The collaboration between the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the China Toy and Baby Products Association, and the enterprise of automotive child safety seats to carry out the "Product Standard Self Declaration" fully demonstrates the new measures and attempts of the government, associations, and enterprises to jointly improve product quality and safety. The first time selecting car child safety seat products as a pilot for conducting self declaration and supervision of product standards is because the safety of such products is more directly related to the safety of children's lives.

Unified promotional signage

The association organizes the development of unified implementation standards

In order to truly improve product quality and ensure children's safe travel through self declaration of product standards, which is beneficial for enterprise implementation, government supervision, and social supervision, the China Toy and Baby Products Association has organized the National Motor Vehicle Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Shanghai), Guangdong Entry Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center, Tsinghua University Automotive Collision Test Laboratory, Jiangsu Yike Testing Technology Service Co., Ltd., and 15 outstanding enterprises. Based on the existing mandatory national standards for automotive child safety seats, and drawing on relevant standards in China and the European Union, a group standard stricter than the national standard has been formulated for the usability, production consistency, and chemical safety issues of automotive child safety seat products. This standard has been implemented since September 1, 2016.

Group standards are stricter than national standards in three aspects

The group standard provides clear requirements and regulations for product labeling usability, user manual usability, child protection usability, and child safety seat installation usability, reducing and avoiding incorrect selection, installation, and use; The group standard specifies the frequency and results of inspection and testing for product production consistency, and sets clear requirements for batch control and continuous control to ensure that the technical parameters, configurations, and performance indicators of child safety seat products entering the market are consistent with those of certified products, and to continuously ensure product safety; The group standards have stricter requirements for the indicators of toxic and harmful substances contained in products. The group standard adopts the chemical safety requirements in the 2014 version of the new national standard GB 6675.1 for toys, and draws on the requirements of the EU REACH regulation for chemical control. Compared with the current national standard for child safety seats, which only sets limit requirements for 8 transferable elements (antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium), the group standard has added limit requirements for pH value, formaldehyde, decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amine dyes, phthalates, and flame retardants, which can more effectively protect children's health and safety.

The association has established a new "Quality China" channel on its official website

In order to strengthen industry self-discipline, cooperate with the government to do a good job in product quality supervision and market regulation management, promote the improvement of industry brands and product quality, the China Toy and Children's Products Association has opened a "Quality China" channel on its official website, which includes columns such as self declaration, brand self-discipline in China, safety commitment brand, safety consumption experience store, group standards, and voluntary certification. Not only does it promote and guide industry enterprises to participate in the self declaration and disclosure of product standards, but it also provides the society with information on self declaration and disclosure of enterprise information, product execution standard information, and product information inquiry. The "Quality China" channel sets up a "Safety Commitment Brand" query, as well as a red list, warning list, and black list. It is not only a platform for showcasing excellent enterprises in the industry, but also a platform for publicizing and supervising illegal enterprises and unqualified products.

Leading the continuous innovation and development of industry enterprise products through the continuous updating of group standards

Liang Mei, president of the China Toys and Infant Products Association, said that in order to maintain the progressiveness of the group standards, the Association will timely learn from the advanced standards of Europe and the United States and other developed countries, revise and update the group standards once a year according to the development level of leading enterprises in the industry, and advocate enterprises to self declare to implement higher standards according to their own ability level under the premise of meeting the national mandatory standards by means of self declaration of product standards, so as to lead the continuous innovation and development of enterprise products with standards.