Monitoring Injuries Associated with Mandated Children's Products in Australia: What Can the Data Tell Us?

Navigating child product safety: Perspectives from experts on international challenges and priorities in regulation and research

OBJECTIVE

To elicit and summarise collective expert opinion on contemporary child product safety risks, challenges and priorities.

METHODS

An online survey targeted international experts from a cross-section of product safety fields.

RESULTS

Fifty-five experts participated, representing 1,137 years of product safety experience, from a broad range of fields including industry risk management, product assessment and testing, policy and regulation, research, paediatric medicine, advocacy and product liability. Participants identified the leading product safety hazards across all age brackets as falls, drowning and chemical hazards, with variance in specific age brackets, particularly the threat to breathing hazards for infants. The leading products of concern to experts were electrical connection/distribution products, primarily button batteries and lithium-ion batteries, infant furnishing products and household furniture. Product safety priorities and challenges were identified under five themes: regulatory, surveillance, industry, consumer and product-specific.

CONCLUSIONS

The gains in knowledge, insight and understanding from experts on contemporary child product safety risks and issues should inform policy and future research.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

There are significant consequences of unsafe consumer products on population health, and the results are timely as we face new product safety issues emerging from e-commerce, the digital transition and innovative product technologies.

Applying a public health approach to identify priorities for regulating child product safety

OBJECTIVE

To identify leading injury risk factors and jurisdictional differences in Australian and US child-related product safety regulatory responses to inform the development of Australian policy and reform priorities.

METHODS

The study established and evaluated a knowledge base of child-related product safety regulatory responses (recalls, bans, standards and warnings) made in Australia and the US over the period 2011-17 to identify risk factors and potential regulatory gaps.

RESULTS

The research identified 1,540 Australian and US child-related product safety regulatory responses with the most common response type being product safety recall, and the leading product hazards in responses being choking, fire, fall, strangulation and chemical hazards. Jurisdictional differences identified potential regulatory gaps in Australia related to chemical hazards and high-risk durable infant and toddler products, and some data deficiencies in Australian responses.

CONCLUSIONS

Priorities include the need to improve the prevention orientation of the Australian product safety framework, to create an intelligence platform to assess injury risks more precisely and to address regulatory gaps related to the use of toxic chemicals in children's products and high-risk durable infant and toddler products. Implications for public health: The study demonstrates the identification of policy and reform priorities for child product safety using a public health lens.