The Commission of the European Union (EU) has released statistics on notices of unsafe consumer products that have been processed through the EU’s rapid information system (RAPEX) during the first half of 2010.
According to the Commission’s report, 1030 notifications of products posing a serious risk were processed through the RAPEX system during the period from January through June of this year. This compares with 901 reports of unsafe products processed through the system during the first half of 2009.
Of the 1030 notifications received during the period, 305 (30%) were related to clothing, textiles and fashion items, with an additional 289 (28%) related to toys, and 90 (9%) related to electrical appliances. There were also 91 notifications related to unsafe motor vehicles, accounting for 9% of the total notifications.
Regarding the country of origin identified in connection with products posing a serious safety risk, more than half of all notifications (629, or 61%) were related to products originating from China, including Hong Kong. Another 168 notifications (16%) of unsafe products originated in EU Member States. Seventy-eight notifications (8%) failed to identify any country of origin.
