SAMR Releases Program to Ensure Safety of Children's Products and School Supplies

The quality and safety of children’s products and school supplies has become a great public concern in China. China SAMR released the 2019 Action Plan for Safety of Children's Products and School Supplies, vowing to provide children and students with access to safe products.

On March 21, 2019, the General Office of the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released its 2019 Action Plan for Safety of Children's Products and School Supplies [1], with an aim to outline initiatives and focuses regarding the work on enhancing safety of children’s products and school supplies.

The Action Plan provides that, to ensure quality and safety of children’s products and school supplies, a problem-oriented approach should be adopted to exercise stricter, integrated regulation and a joint governance system should be established with the engagement of industry organizations, product testing agencies, news media, as well as the public.

Focuses will be given to four categories, namely children’s toys, stationaries, school uniforms, and raw materials for running tracks in schools.

Products	Initiatives
Children’s Toys	Inspections will be conducted particularly on six types of products which have been included in the catalogue of China Compulsory Certification (CCC), including plastic toys, metal toys, projectile toys, dolls, electric toys, and stroller products. Tests will be conducted to detect chemical hazards like plasticizers and physical hazards which can be caused by small parts, ropes, etc. Investigations will be conducted targeting dangerous toys like toothpick crossbows and metal darts, products incompliant with mandatory standards, products without labelling of production date, certification, or manufacturer, and counterfeit and substandard products.
Stationaries	Inspections will be conducted particularly on writing instruments like markers, painting instruments like crayons, erasing tools like correction fluid, and notebooks. Tests will be conducted to detect chemical hazards like benzenes and free formaldehyde. Investigations will be conducted targeting products incompliant with mandatory standards, products without labelling of production date, certification, or manufacturer, and counterfeit and substandard products.
School uniforms	Regulators should work together with education authorities to enhance quality supervision and spot check for school uniforms, and conduct tests on safety criteria like formaldehyde and traces of aromatic amines. The campaigns for quality supervision of school uniforms should be continued; entities procuring relevant products should incorporate technical standards and quality requirements into their contracts so as to strengthen scrutiny in product quality reviews.
Raw materials for running tracks in schools	Focuses will be placed on the spot check of raw materials for running tracks in schools, such as plastic particles and glue. Endeavors will be made to provide technical support for the implementation of GB 36246-2018 (Sports Areas with Synthetic Surfaces for Primary and Middle Schools).

In terms of specific measures, the Action Plan requires that: regulators should have a basic knowledge of quality and safety of children’s products and school supplies produced within their respective jurisdiction; special campaigns should be carried out targeting prominent problems in the production, operations, and e-commerce sales of relevant products; and intensive efforts should be made to heighten public awareness in this regard.

Coinciding with the release of the document, Shenzhen Television reported days ago that certain plastic children’s toys sold on the platform of Pinduoduo (PDD) contain more than 400 times the allowable limit of plasticizers under Chinese regulations. And up to now, PDD has removed over 20,000 links of substandard plastic toys from the shelves, without publishing or reporting any self-inspection results and thus failing to reassure the market.