SPRING Singapore joins forces with groups to ensure safer toys

The agency is tasked to ensure that the toys sold in Singapore must conform to applicable international, national or regional safety standards.

SPRING Singapore is setting up a joint working group to look into ways to further improve the safety of toys in Singapore. The working group comprises representatives from SPRING, Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), Singapore Toys & Confectionery Dealers’ Association, Federation of Merchants’ Associations, Singapore and Singapore Retailers Association. The working group will coordinate a multi-pronged approach to raise awareness and educate businesses and consumers, as well as to propose further measures to enhance toy safety, according to a SPRING Singapore report.

The latest move is part of the actions that SPRING is taking to make toys sold in Singapore safer. On 1 April 2011, SPRING was appointed as the Safety Authority in charge of the new Consumer Protection (Consumer Goods Safety Requirements) Regulations (CGSR). Under the regulations, general consumer goods, including toys, sold in Singapore must conform to applicable international, national or regional safety standards. If a product is found to be unsafe, SPRING has the power to order the supplier to stop the sale and notify consumers of the unsafe product. Failure to comply with SPRING’s directive can result in a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to two years, or both.

Over the last three months, SPRING has conducted some 50 spot checks on stores selling toys. They include department stores, supermarkets and shops in the HDB heartlands across the island. Tests were conducted on 200 samples of toys covering various categories and price ranges. The toys were tested for physical and mechanical safety, and for chemical contents to check that phthalates and lead are within safe limits.

Following the tests, SPRING issued 47 stop-sale notices to the retailers whose toys were found to be unsafe. SPRING also met the importers, wholesalers and retailers to educate them on the CGSR regulations and what they should do to ensure that their products meet the applicable safety standards. The suppliers and retailers have cooperated with SPRING and have removed all the unsafe toys promptly.

Public education is another key strategy to raise awareness among businesses and consumers. SPRING has produced brochures on the CGSR regulations and toy safety. So far, 60,000 copies have been distributed to the public. Advertisements are also placed regularly in the major newspapers and articles published in magazines such as Lifestyle and Motherhood. In addition, SPRING and CASE have organised public awareness seminars. About 400 businesses and consumers participated in the seminars. SPRING also attended to some 150 enquiries on its CGSR hotline.

CASE, the consumer watchdog body, is actively supporting SPRING in the quest for safer toys in Singapore. Indeed, it was the two rounds of toy safety checks by CASE which highlighted the need for more to be done to improve toy safety. Of the 50 toys tested last year, 24 had failed the safety tests. A second check in February this year on a different set of 50 toys found 23 failures. The results of the latest tests done on 200 toys in June/July by SPRING show a significant improvement.Overall, the percentage of toys which failed the tests has declined by more than half.