(Prague March 31, 2009), during this international inspection event, the Czech Trade Inspectorate examined, whether products sold on the Czech market complied with requirements of the Rule No. 102/2001 Sb., the General safety products. The inspected products were various children clothes equipped with tightening ropes.
The actual inspection is being done by selected workers from all CTI Inspectorates. During January and February of this year, 78 subjects has been inspected, from which 61 subjects revealed some kind of findings. Most of the time, the defective products had no brand name and were missing information about the importer or manufacturer, most likely from the
These following defects have been discovered – clothes for small children were equipped with tightening lines and ropes around the neck area, used to tighten the hood or the neck area. Clothing for children of up to 14 years of age, were equipped with tightening ropes with ends hanging down freely, around the neck area. In addition, tightening lines or ropes with ends hanging down freely were around the waist area but the length was longer than allowed, or these ropes were not sewn into the clothing at least in one location and at the same distance from the rope outlet opening. Tightening lines and ropes used to tie up pans or trousers were, in some cases, designed that they ended on the lower edge and were not entirely hidden inside the closing, or they created a loop below the lower edge of the clothing.
Based on the above-mentioned findings, regulations included in the Rule No. 3, Item 1, letter a), Rule No. 102/2001 Coll., describing the general product safety were not observed and the CTI issued a ban prohibiting 1, 031 pieces of clothing, designed for small and older children from sale. The total value of banned products reached the amount of CZK 174,890,- . A significant amount of clothes designed for small children were banned from sale due to failure to comply with applicable safety rules covering the neck and hood requirements, as lines sewn into small children clothing may get stuck during play (children playgrounds, slides, etc), causing unexpected tightening. Flexible ropes with metal or plastic ends may also cause injuries of the face.
The currently ongoing inspections shall help distributors of children clothing to learn about safety requirements, which needs to be observed. The current findings and results correspond with results obtained in other EU member states, which participate in the same project.
Appendixes
- prohibited lines at the lower trouser edge -1-1.jpg (1.5 Mb)
- prohibited lines at the lower trouser edge -2-1.jpg (1.6 Mb)
- prohibited lines around the waist area-1.jpg (356.5 Kb)
- young adults – ropes around the neck area -1.jpg (371.1 Kb)