With the autumn breeze comes the start of the school season. Students are busy preparing their school supplies, and stationery, as an indispensable part of learning life, is particularly important for its safety and compliance. EVERTEST is pleased to present a guide to safe stationery purchasing during the school season, to help parents and students select school supplies that are both practical and reassuring.

Choose odourless stationery

Fruit-flavoured erasers, scented ballpoint pens, highlighters, paint sticks and scented wrapping paper abound in student stationery on the market. These scented stationery is a common means used by manufacturers to attract primary school students. Behind the scent is actually benzene, formaldehyde and other substances at work. In addition, scented stationery can affect a child's concentration.

Don't pick workbooks that are too white in paper colour

Many parents mistakenly believe that the whiter the paper, the better the quality. The national standard GB 21027 ‘General Requirements for the Safety of Student Supplies’ stipulates that the brightness (whiteness) of the booklet for students should be no greater than 85%, the light industry standard QB/T 1437-2023 provides that the inner core of the booklet of coursework D65 brightness to be in the range of 55% to 85%, the paper is too white it will stimulate, damage the eyes of the students, students easy to fatigue, affecting the students' eyesight, it is recommended that you select yellowish The workbook.

Don't pick brightly coloured stationery

Brightly coloured stationery usually contains heavy metals, which can adversely affect the human organs, blood system and bones. If you eat without washing your hands after touching stationery, or if you have the problem of biting or holding it in your mouth, you will eat the heavy metal substances in colourful stationery into your stomach. If the child's blood lead level exceeds the health indicators, the child will show symptoms such as loss of appetite, and some even lead poisoning phenomenon, on the child's growth and development impact.

Try to use paper material for school wrappers

Colourful book cover is very popular with children, but these products are likely to contain phthalates and other plasticisers, such harmful substances can enter the human body through hand or mouth contact, will endanger the children's liver and kidneys, but also can cause precocious puberty in children. Try to avoid the use of self-adhesive book wrapping film, adhesive risk of formaldehyde. And in line with the concept of environmental protection and conservation, it is recommended to choose kraft paper, calendar paper wrapped books, beautiful and environmentally friendly.

Primary school students try not to use correction fluid

Correction fluid itself still has a certain degree of toxicity, such as the main component of titanium dioxide and methylcyclohexane, the normal use of the human body has very little impact, but due to the age of primary school students, the body is still in a period of development, long-term exposure to such organic solvents still have adverse effects.

Recognise regular stationery shops and shopping malls

Purchase stationery through regular shops, official websites or authorised dealers to avoid buying counterfeit products. When purchasing, look carefully at the name of the product, the implementation of standards, manufacturers, precautions for use, warnings, production date and shelf life and other important information, with ‘environmental protection, non-toxic’ logo should be given priority to buy.

Guidelines for purchasing schoolbags

In the purchase of school bags, try to choose broadband, shoulder pads shoulder backpacks, so that both shoulders to withstand the same pressure, such as a weight belt is better, so that the pressure can be evenly dispersed, will not cause excessive damage to the back and shoulders. For the lower grades, try not to buy trolley bags, because the length of the trolley bar is not suitable, easy to cause damage to the child's spine. And it is easy to bump when dragging the schoolbag, easy to trip others and possibly yourself.

Pay attention to pen cap safety

Finally, we should also consider the safety issue, handmade scissors, blades should be rounded tip, not sharp tip; should pay attention to the pen cap safety, the diameter of the pen cap should be greater than 16mm, the pen cap body needs to have a continuous at least 6.8 square millimetres of the air channel, which can reduce the risk of asphyxiation after swallowing the user accidentally.

Let us work together to build a safety defence for the students' learning path.