Nandu News: Children's plastic toys under the banner of "export" are actually a quality and safety "bomb". On May 28, the Guangdong Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau, together with the Shantou City and Chenghai District Quality Supervision Bureau, conducted surprise inspections on two toy companies and two individual businesses. Among them, 11 types of toy products processed by an individual business were found to have suspected quality problems. Nandu reporters learned at the law enforcement site that children's plastic toy products are national 3C mandatory certification products, but the inspected merchants evaded 3C certification under the pretext of "export".

It is understood that some of the toy products seized this time will flow to toy wholesale markets such as Guangzhou Yide Road and Yiwu, Zhejiang. When Nandu reporters visited large wholesale markets in Guangzhou, they found that plastic toy products without 3C certification were everywhere.

At 10:30 am on the 28th, Nandu reporters, together with law enforcement personnel from the provincial quality supervision and other relevant departments, came to an individual business in Meizhou Park, Chenghua Street, Chenghai City for inspection. As soon as I walked into the warehouse of about 200 square meters, I smelled a pungent plastic odor. The warehouse was filled with various plastic toys. I took out a plastic toy at random and saw that the simple plastic packaging was labeled in English without any Chinese characters.

Mr. Chen, the owner of the business, explained that since May 2010, he has rented a four-story residential building in the American Park to process and package balls, balloons, water guns, plush toys and other toys. All products are exported, and there is no domestic sales business, so there is no need to use Chinese. When the reporter asked why there was no "3C" mark on the toy packaging, the boss quickly pointed to the "CE" mark on the toy packaging and responded, "We don't sell it domestically, so we don't need "3C"."

"I don't know what this ("CE") means, I just do whatever the boss tells me to do." A packing worker picked up the "CE" paper sticker on the ground, attached the mark to the plastic tape, put a toy pistol into it, sealed it, and completed an "export" toy marked with the "CE" EU safety standard. After visiting the other two floors of the warehouse, Nandu reporters found that the warehouse stored a large number of "CE" stickers, and each sticker had a different foreign language mark, most of which were English and Middle Eastern.

Can the "CE mark" be affixed manually? The on-site law enforcement officers said that according to the national product quality law, whether the export manufacturer has the right to affix the "CE" mark mainly depends on whether the factory has relevant quality inspection equipment. If there is no relevant equipment, how can the quality of the exported products be guaranteed? However, no testing equipment was found in this factory, and the "CE" mark was just an "empty shell".

"There are too many manufacturers using "CE" as a cover now." The whistleblower of the Chenghai law enforcement action told Nandu reporters that the illegal merchants who chose to put CE on their products did so in order to protect their products from being inspected by the quality supervision department. Once discovered by law enforcement officers, some retailers were hesitant to tell the specific factory name, because many factories themselves have no factory name and are underground factories.

Department response

Quality Supervision:

The suspected problematic toys have been sent for inspection

According to law enforcement officers, the "3C" certification is a mandatory safety certification made by China for products related to personal health. Since March 1, 2006, the Chinese toy industry has launched the 3C certification. The state stipulates that toys without the 3C mark can no longer be sold on the market. "Plastic toys, in particular, must be certified by the 3C certification." Law enforcement officers explained that, taking the Chenghai toy processing factory seized this time as an example, it had been evading the 3C certification by claiming that the toys were labeled with the CE. Because the CE is the EU's safety certification mark, according to national regulations, Chinese quality inspectors only conduct spot checks on such products. CE products are mainly tested by relevant foreign quality inspection agencies. However, the CE mark is not a quality mark, it is just a mark that represents that the product has met the European safety/health/environmental protection/sanitation series of standards and directives. In addition, for export products to be sold domestically, there must be two marks on the products, one is CE and the other is 3C, neither of which can be missing; toy products without any packaging cannot be sold on the market.

Currently, more than 4,000 toys of 11 categories suspected of quality problems by the investigated individual industrial and commercial households have been seized according to law, and the quality inspection personnel have also taken the suspected toys for inspection, and the case is under further investigation.

Inspection:

Most of the problems are physical structure

When visiting the toy market, Nandu reporters found that some toys without 3C certification were sold in small shops in front of schools, especially toys based on popular cartoons, which are very popular among students. For this reason, Nandu reporters took some toys to the Guangdong Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute for inspection. The relevant inspection personnel told reporters that most of the toys sent for inspection had physical structure problems, and no problems were found in the chemical inspection of the toys. Generally, problems in toy chemical inspections will appear in dyes and raw materials. For example, the lead content of dyes exceeds the standard, or the barium content exceeds the standard. Generally, plastic toys without 3C certification are more likely to have excessive amounts of lead and other chemical ingredients. "3C is the basic threshold for the quality of plastic toys."

Market visits

Products without 3C certification can be seen everywhere

Although the merchant denied that the toys in the factory were sold to the mainland when questioned by law enforcement officers, the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter learned during the law enforcement process that the processed plastic toys in this factory have long been sent to toy wholesale markets such as Yide Road in Guangzhou for sale. On the 28th and 29th, the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter visited Wanling Plaza on Jiefang South Road and the wholesale market on Yide Road in succession. During the visit, it was found that products without 3C certification marks could be seen everywhere.

The reporter found that there are many types of plastic toys at present, the most common ones are key chains, popular cartoon dolls, toy cars, etc. Most of the products such as key chains, leather balls, and small dolls are sold naked, at most in plastic bags, and there are no words or patterns printed on the plastic bags, let alone the 3C logo. This type of toy is very cheap. Some SpongeBob SquarePants, which are only half the size of a palm and made of hard plastic, cost only 1 yuan each.

CE products are everywhere and it is difficult to distinguish the real from the fake

During the visit, the reporter found a strange phenomenon. The packaged plastic toys were more often printed with "CE" rather than "3C". However, according to regulations, even products exported to the EU and then sold domestically must also be certified with 3C on the basis of CE, that is, both logos must be present. However, the reporter saw in the wholesale market that there are very few products with both logos, and most of them only have one CE logo.

Are the above products real CE or fake CE? When the reporter asked about the source of the purchase, the clerks kept their mouths shut and were unwilling to reveal a single word. Interestingly, the reporter saw in a store that the packaging of a small cartoon toy had more than one CE logo printed on it, but a row of them, which was obviously printed randomly.

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