With the arrival of the summer vacation, another wave of training courses and creative classes are about to start. Painting courses and writing courses have become the main force. Many parents have started to have a headache for purchasing products. The reporter has made a thorough understanding of this.
Selection prompt 1: stay away from fancy stationery and fragrant stationery
As for the plasticizer problem that parents are most worried about, the reporter learned that the materials of the middle hand guard of the pen holder, plastic erasers, and fancy stationery are the hardest hit areas of plasticizers, and children especially like the "fancy" stationery sold on the market now, which is also their toys.
In addition, scented stationery is another disaster area, and scented rubber, scented watercolor pen, scented water pen... are especially popular with girls. Some products also imitate chocolate flavor, fruit flavor, milk flavor, etc., which are more dangerous for young children. They often mistake them for being edible and put them in their mouth. These stationery are often not clearly marked, and there is no applicable age prompt. On the one hand, the child's fondness and on the other hand, the parents are worried about safety. They are in a dilemma.
Selection prompt 2: distinguish the standard
Some insiders said that the European Union safety standard has a more stringent set of regulations for the content of lead and other chemicals in pencils. Compared with domestic standards, it has more stringent requirements for the content of dangerous elements. Experts said that when consumers choose products, they can refer to the safety standards on the packaging. For example, the general domestic stationery refers to the "General Requirements for the Safety of Student Supplies" (GB21027-2007), which provides the migration limits of eight heavy metal elements such as lead, mercury and arsenic.
Some products adopt European Union standards or American standards, and consumers can see CE or ASTM marks on the package.
Experts said that if there is a CE mark, it means that the product meets the EU standard.
For example, in the CE standard, EN71-1 only states that the product has passed the physical and mechanical characteristics test of the overall product; EN71-2 represents that the product has passed the flammability test of the overall product; EN71-3 specifies the migration limit of 19 elements in toys or toy components, and the content of lead in lead core, wood pole and paint shall not exceed 13.5 mg/kg; EN71-9
For lead core and paint, 16 colorants, 9 primary aromatic amines, monomers, solvents, plasticizers, etc. need to be tested separately (see the comparison table for details).
At the same time, experts also remind consumers that some manufacturers will change concepts and only generally mark EN71, but in fact, they may only pass the relatively preliminary identification.
It is understood that at present, our national compulsory standards do not mention the requirements for the content of plasticizer in stationery, but our national environmental protection standards refer to international requirements and stipulate the harmful substances in student supplies. For enterprises, only voluntary applications for environmental labeling products need to be implemented by reference. At the same time, this kind of inspection represents a high cost, so only formal enterprises of a considerable scale will take the initiative to submit for inspection. Taking Marco pencil, the largest wooden pencil brand in China, as an example, because its products are sold to 80 countries and regions around the world, the annual cost for professional testing is more than 5 million yuan to ensure that the products meet all standards.
Selection Tip 3: The simpler the product, the better
Lu Jing, director of China National Light Industry Pencil Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, said that the uneven quality of domestic stationery products was largely due to the relatively backward development of stationery standards in China and the lack of a sound standard system. In addition, domestic consumers tend to pay more attention to appearance and smell when purchasing stationery, ignoring the key issue of quality and safety. In fact, the simpler the product design, the lower the possibility of problems.
Therefore, experts also recommend consumers to choose products with simple design and natural materials. At present, environmentally friendly and log products are popular in the market, such as log pencils and log color lead. The pen body does not have any paint, reducing potential safety hazards. In addition, many children's watercolor pens and line markers are also characterized by no smell at all and are safe and non-toxic, so consumers can buy them at ease.
Finally, experts also pointed out that since the market is also full of counterfeit and counterfeit goods, in order to ensure that the products purchased are genuine within the warranty period, consumers should not seek cheap, but go to the regular channels to buy. It can also be purchased at the manufacturer's official flagship online store.
CE: safety certification mark, which means that the product has met the European safety/health/environmental protection/hygiene standards and directives. All products with "CE" mark can be sold in the EU member countries.