Taking the safety out of safety gates

Meetings of the Standards committees are not open, and you cannot ask for an audience to voice concerns or opinions. Therefore it seemed appropriate to have an open forum on Jan 29th where many parties could come together and petition the committee as one voice. Why?

The main issue was that BS EN 1930 has been amended, and this amendment has taken the necessity away from manufacturers to make the statement on the packaging and point of sale that a gate should never be used without wall/fixing cups, if that is how it has been tested for compliance to the above standard.

The consumer understands the term "pressure mounted" to infer that the gate needs no wall cups or additional fixings to fix the gate into place. Some manufacturers use this term to indicate that their products are "pressure mounted" into wall cups. Whilst confusion reigns on this issue, we believe this is resulting in safety gates presenting a risk of an accidental injury in the home.

On the introduction of BS EN 1930 2000, Purchase Information required that if a gate was designed to be used with wall cups then a statement "Never use without fixing cups" should be visible. However, BS EN 1930 2000 Amendment 1 2006 only requires a generic statement that "Incorrect fitting or positioning of this safety barrier can be dangerous". All specific references to the wall/fixing cups have been taken out completely. We believe this is fuelling the confusion and needs addressed.

We also noted some advertising and point of sale material, which adds to this confusion by defining "Pressure Fit/Mounted" as temporary? The consumer deserves to understand exactly what they are purchasing at the point of sale.

Under the General Product Safety Directive a foreseen misuse must be addressed and therefore a petition has been sent to the Standards Committee responsible for the BS EN 1930 urging them to look at the descriptive term "pressure fit/mounted" and what this implies to the end user and how this affects the safe use and foreseeable misuse of the product.

Carol Ainge, Kid Rapt Ltd, Chair of the Institute of Home Safety

Do you have an opinion on any aspect of the nursery industry? Would you like to share your thoughts? If so, please call Cathy on 01582 762674 or email cathybryan@btinternet.com . Or write to The Editor, Nursery Industry, Datateam Publishing Ltd, London Rd., Maidstone, Kent ME16 8LY

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