Issued By Northumberland County Council

REFLECTION TIME

I’m sure all of us at one time or another have thought   “I’m sick of doing boring, routine sampling, inspection etc etc “,   Then something happens that makes you realise that what we routinely do, and probably take for granted,

is  very, very important. That ‘something’ happened  earlier this year with a phone call from the local police informing me that a three year old child had hanged herself playing with a toy - and were we interested!

The toy in question was an innocuous looking soft toy  ‘Winnie the Pooh’ in the form of a backpack. (Photo of toy attached). The little girl had  been playing in a bedroom and had apparently hooked one of the straps of the backpack over a handle on a wardrobe door and then, it is believed, had slipped off the bed and somehow managed to get her head through the other strap hanging down and strangled herself.

She was found like this by her mum!

I’ve been in this job a long time but I think meeting the parents of this little girl to get more information on the toy was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had. What do you say to someone in that situation?

To cut a long story short our subsequent enquiries revealed that during the design process three separate, reputable, Test Houses had examined and tested the toy, quite rightly using EN71. In relation to the straps on the backpack part of the toy the Test Houses all referred to Clause 5,4 (of Part 1) headed ‘Cords on Toys’ and they all reported that the toy complied with the requirements. The toy was consequently manufactured  and distributed.

We disagree with the conclusions of the test houses, our view being that there is nothing in EN71 that covers the particular strap arrangement on this toy as Clause 5.4 applies only when a noose can be formed in the cord.

We do agree, however, that Clause 5.4 is confusing to say the least and

we are therefore pushing very hard to have the Standard amended.

I think my reasons for submitting this article are twofold  - one practical and one philosophical  :-   

firstly, for information - for anyone dealing with any similar matter and secondly ( and probably more importantly) as a tragic reminder of how important a job it is we do and if we didn’t carry out what appear to be routine, boring duties how many more phone calls like this  would we receive?