Children
Protecting children
Statistics show that injury is a major cause of death and disability among children. Experts developing standards for household items like microwave ovens and televisions may find it hard to imagine that children actually use these products, but consumer behaviour studies show otherwise. In addition, children's natural curiosity can lead them to interact with products never intended for them and this can lead to unfortunate consequences. ISO has long recognized that standards can and should play a key role in preventing injuries to children and ISO/IEC Guide 50 gives the latest thinking on guidelines for the incorporation of child safety aspects in standards. The Guide contains information that may also be directly useful to designers, architects, manufacturers, service providers, communicators, safety professionals and the like. By reading about the possible interactions of children with hazards, they may be stimulated to adapt their products and services accordingly.
Child pedestrian safety
Many children are each year among the thousands of pedestrians and cyclists struck by motor vehicles. Most of these accidents takes place in urban areas where serious or fatal injuries can be sustained at relatively slow speed, particularly in the case of children.
According to the statistics, about 8 000 pedestrians and cyclists are killed about 300 000 injured in the European Union each year. In North America the figures indicate around 5 000 pedestrians killed and 85 000 injured.
Improving pedestrian safety is the aim of ISO 16850:2007 which provides a crash test method for simulating the front impact of a vehicle to a child pedestrian’s head. The reconstruction results will allow manufacturers to generate estimates of head-impact conditions, like impact velocity, angle and timing, sustained in the simulated accident and therefore, maximize harmonization of test results conducted by different test organizations.
The standard facilitates the development of more pedestrian-friendly cars, reducing serious head injuries of children and enhancing safety in real world crashes.
Safe toys for the children of the world
An estimated hundreds of thousands of children are injured each year in accidents caused by toys. Many national toy safety standards exist, but industry experts involved in the development of the ISO 8124 family believe that these internationally agreed documents are not only more comprehensive, but will also reduce the costs of testing and approval of toys - an ultimate benefit for the consumer. The standard, which deals with the mechanical and physical safety aspects, refers not only to the normal uses of toys, but, as far as possible, also makes allowance for the fact that children often put a toy to a different uses than those for which they are designed. The standard also aims, therefore, to prevent accidents, which happen due to foreseeable misuse of a toy. When manufacturers comply with the provisions of the three standards in the ISO 8124 family, the number of accidents is expected to drop considerably.
Child-resistant packaging
Young children are at risk of swallowing harmful products used around the home. According to the Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom, poisoning by solids and liquids accounted for 1 in 25 accidents to children under the age of four and represented nearly 28 788 poisonings nationwide in 1999 alone.
ISO is helping to reduce the risk by means of a standard that provides an internationally recognized test method for assessing the child-resistant characteristics of packages before they are put on the market for consumer use. It allows manufacturers to develop child-resistant packages that offer an adequate physical barrier between a child under the age of five and a range of hazardous products, including certain medicinal products, liquid fuels and solvents, strongly acid or alkaline preparations, and some garden products.
While child-resistant packages have proved effective in preventing children from opening or gaining access to hazardous contents, they have also raised concerns over the difficulty of adults in opening the package, particularly among the elderly and the physically disabled.
ISO 8317, Child-resistant packaging - Requirements and testing procedures for reclosable packages, also includes a test method for adults between the ages of 50 and 70 - thereby providing not only a measure of the effectiveness of the package in restricting access by children, but also in permitting access to its contents by adults.
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