Raising Standards for Consumers

THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA IN PROTECTING THE SAFETY OF CONSUMERS

Mike Hayes

(ANEC volunteer representative)

Tania Vandenberghe

(ANEC Senior Programme Manager)

Raising Standards for Consumers

About ANEC

• ANEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation

(www.anec.eu)

• ANEC represents the European consumer interest in the

creation of technical standards, especially those

developed to support the implementation of European

laws and public policies

• Supported financially by the European Union & EFTA

Raising Standards for Consumers

About ANEC

• ANEC participates principally through its voluntary

experts in the standards development work of the three

European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs):

– CEN

– CENELEC

– ETSI

• Also participates in ISO, IEC and UNECE committees

• ANEC participates in more than 155 technical bodies of

the European and international standards organisations

Raising Standards for Consumers

About ANEC

• Under the Standardisation Regulation, ANEC has a right

to be consulted and to participate at various stages in

the standards development processes

• ANEC is represented on the European Commission’s

committee that oversees the General Product Safety

Directive, the directive that controls a wide range of

consumer products, and its Consumer Safety Network

• ANEC also has an interest in the application of

standards, including market surveillance and

enforcement, accreditation and conformity assessment

schemes

Raising Standards for Consumers

ANEC technical priorities

- Child Safety

- Design for All

- Domestic Appliances

- Sustainability

- Information Society

- Services

- Traffic

Raising Standards for Consumers

Long-standing interest in data collection and use

• Joint call for a Pan-European

Accident and Injury Data

system

• Joint initiative from 8 EU

stakeholders (ANEC,

EuroSafe, etc) with support of

24 other EU stakeholders

(including EUPHA) launched

in March 2013

Raising Standards for Consumers

The lack of detailed, representative accident data is a problem

“There is no need to

change the standard because there are no

accidents, everything is fine!”

“Can you show us accident data?”

Raising Standards for Consumers

Data sources used in standards development

• RAPEX and product recalls – no injury information

• Consumer complaints - completeness and availability?

• Media reports – not representative

• Comparative testing – no injury information

• Extrapolation of relevant data about hazardous

characteristics from other similar types of products

• Information on problems and actions in other

jurisdictions – might not be identical products

• European Injury Database (IDB) – limits to

representatives

Raising Standards for Consumers

Injury data needed for …

• Problem definition – is there a problem or not?

• Prioritising what products and services needs to be

addressed

• Development of safety requirements that form part of

standardisation requests – European Commission

mechanism for instructing ESOs to develop standards

• Development of detailed requirements and test methods

in standards – need to reflect the real world as far as

possible

• Assessment of the effectiveness of standards

Raising Standards for Consumers

Ideal injury data requirements for standards development - 1

• Broad epidemiological data

• Detailed – circumstances of the events, nature and

severity of injuries, ages of injured people, etc

• Representative – pan-European

• Information on fatalities

Raising Standards for Consumers

Ideal injury data requirements for standards development - 2

• Up-to-date and responsive to new products entering the

market

• Trend information

• Data needs to be available to all members of standards

committees, especially free text descriptions of events

• Data needs to be easily and quickly accessible

• While anonymity needs to be maintained, age data in

single years needs to be available

Raising Standards for Consumers

Other data and information requirements

• Denominator data

• Cost-effectiveness information – injuries, prevention,

the development of standards and testing cost money

• Child behaviour – young children’s behaviour and

capabilities change rapidly

• Children’s anthropometry

• How adults use products – are they aware of warnings,

do they obey instructions, do they understand symbols,

etc?

Raising Standards for Consumers

An uphill battle

60,000+ experts from business

75 experts in CEN committees on behalf of consumers

Raising Standards for Consumers

Thank you

Mike Hayes (mike.hayes@capt.org.uk)

Tania Vandenberghe (tania.vandenberghe@anec.eu)

ANEC is supported financially by the European Union & EFTA