Tests Fail To Pick Up Dangerous Electric Products
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday July 12, 2007
SUBSTANDARD imported electrical goods are slipping through the testing net and threatening the safety of Australians, according to manufacturers.
In the past four months, one-third of the more than 60 recalled products have been cheap imported electrical or electronic goods, data recorded by the Competition and Consumer Commission shows. The products range from faulty power adaptors putting users at risk of electrocution, to computer battery packs prone to overheating and igniting.In one of the most recent recalls, issued nationally late last month, almost 70,000 power sockets were found to be so poorly made that when a power plug was inserted or removed, the protecting plate fell away exposing the live terminals in the socket.The commission does not record the country of origin of recalled products and many companies the Herald contacted either refused to reveal the country of origin of the recalled product, or were unable to be contacted. But of those companies which supplied the Herald with information, more than half said the faulty product or part had been imported from China. Bryan Douglas, the deputy chief executive of the Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association, said the industry had become increasingly concerned about the poor level of monitoring in relation to the quality and safety of some products imported from China. Mr Douglas cited recent examples such as portable lights with faulty earthing, and miniature circuit breakers and safety switches which failed to work."There is a flood of electrical and electronic goods coming into the country," he said. "Some of it is patently unsafe but we do not have enough mechanisms in place to deal with the unsafe products."Mr Douglas said there were even problems with some Chinese products subject to mandatory certification under the "inherently dangerous" category, because the certification logos and labels were counterfeit.The Competition and Consumer Commission collates the details of product recalls, under Australian regulations.However, each state, working with the Customs Service, is responsible for monitoring the safety of imported manufactured goods and supervising product recalls. Gunther Theisz, the president of the Electrical Compliance Testing Association, said there was evidence to suggest inferior products were being dumped on the Australian market because compliance regulations such as mandatory on-site factory inspections did not exist here, whereas such regulations were strictly policed in the US and the European Union.Mr Theisz agreed with the Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association, saying a lack of resources meant electrical safety regulators felt that they were unable to monitor thoroughly all potentially dangerous products entering the country."Very often, the regulators are just relying on competitors to dob each other in," he said.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald