More than half of dangerous items reported in Cyprus in 2021 were toys

Fifty eight per cent of dangerous non-food products found in Cyprus in 2021 were toys, the European Commission’s rapid alert system for dangerous items has shown.

Another 16 per cent of the 45 safety alerts concerned clothing, the report showed on Monday.

The most common hazard alerts were related to choking hazard, at 31 per cent, or hazardous chemicals, at 29 per cent, the official in charge of the Rapex system at the commerce ministry, Andreas Tsioutis told the Cyprus News Agency on Tuesday.

At an EU level, motor vehicles were at the top of the list of dangerous non-food products for the first time, followed by toys. Protective equipment like face masks continued to make up a substantial part of the products notified.

Tsioutis explained that toys are the item most intensively controlled in Cyprus, with inspections in shops, three annual samplings in cooperation with the State Chemistry Department, as well as inspections by the Labour Inspection Department.

As far as these items are concerned, Tsioutis added, checks are also carried out with targeted sampling at EU level, with samples being sent for testing to laboratories in Europe.

During the Christmas and Easter period checks are intensified on these items, whether they are toys, children’s clothing or other items related to children and infants.

He added that in 2021 Cyprus was included in the European Commission’s control group, especially for baby seats (relax).

Regarding inspections of motor vehicles in the island, the official said there are no car manufacturers which undertake these checks.

In our country, he said, toys account for the majority of inspections and thus of safety notices issued, unlike in the EU, where cars exceeded toys for the first time.

In light of the shift of consumption towards online shopping platforms, new instruments are also developed to better protect consumers shopping online and take the dangerous products off the market, the report said.

In line with these objectives, the Commission this week launched a new e-surveillance tool called “web crawler” that will help national authorities detect the online offers of unsafe products signalled in the report.

“This will certainly help our own work,” added Tsioutis.