Recall on city's faulty baby cribs
- Source: Global Times
- [09:25 June 09 2010]
- Comments
By Zhang Cao and Tang Zhao
Five out of the seven baby crib companies listed as selling products deemed below par by a municipal government report released Monday are now saying sorry for their oversight and are recalling the affected models - none of which are made for export.
The Chinese companies are also offering customers a refund or exchange after the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission (SCRPC) reported that only 56 percent of the baby cribs sold in the city meet the national safety and quality standards.
The other two companies singled out for putting faulty goods on the market, Dongguan Sanyuanyiyou Clothes Company, which owns the SanMuBeDe brand, and Shantou Jinfa Women and Baby Articles, which owns the XIA YI DAI brand, could not be reached for comment by the Global Times Tuesday. No word on whether they, too, will recall their products.
The main problems with the cribs were that the sides were found to be too low, making it easy for babies to fall out, while others had too much space between the headboard and the mattress, meaning that babies could easily get stuck in the gap.
The first-ever SCRPC study on baby cribs has even found fault with popular household brands including Goodbaby, which confirmed to the Global Times Tuesday that one of their outdated models was said by the commission to be problematic.
"It's true that this model doesn't meet the national standard. When we designed the product in 1997, there were no official standards at that time, so we just followed our company standards," said Liu Tongyou, vice president of Goodbaby Group.
He admitted that the company did not stop manufacturing the model after the national standards were established in July 2000.
"But we only made 4,000 of these cribs during the last 13 years, of which 3,741 were sold," he said, adding that none of these cribs were sold overseas since other countries apply different standards.
He added that no complaints or injuries from these cribs have been reported from customers.
The other four companies that are also recalling their products are Shanghai PIYOPIYO Trading Company; Guangzhou Midway Company, which owns the Baby-Q brand; Shenzhen Colorlife Furniture Company, which owns the Colorlife brand; and Zhangzhou Xiyingmen Furniture Company, which owns the X.M.B brand.
Meanwhile, some parents say the news has prompted them to pay more attention to the brands they purchase for their children.
"I used to think that Goodbaby was a trustworthy brand, but I won't be buying their products anymore," said Hu Xiaoying, the father of a 4-year-old.
Others like John Steinsland from Norway were a little more forgiving of the news.
"I still think some China-made baby cribs are safe," the father of an adopted Chinese orphan, told the Global Times Tuesday. "As long as I buy them at a big shopping mall, they should be alright."
"I also think products made in China that sell in my home country are also safe because our government checks these products carefully," he added.
According to the national regulations, the sides of the crib should reach at least 600 millimeters in height, while the gap between the headboard and mattress should be no wider than 25 millimeters.
