Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Products | 2016 ANNUAL REPORT

The Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products enables quick circulation of the information sent by national authorities on the measures taken against products posing a risk to consumers’ health and safety. This allows enforcement authorities in the countries that are members of the network to swiftly follow up on the notifications and to screen their markets for the possible presence of these unsafe products.

Since 2010, the Rapid Alert System also covers professional products and products posing risks other than those affecting health and safety (such as risks to the environment). The present report covers strictly the Rapid Alert System’s activity related to consumer products posing a risk to the health and safety of consumers. In 2016, this concerned 2044 notifications and 3824 reactions.

The amount of notifications per product category has remained fairly stable over the years, with the exception of the category ‘clothing’, which showed a significant increase between 2008 and 2010, followed by a gradual decrease since then. The increase in notifications of this product category was partly due to the coordinated efforts of market surveillance authorities who concentrated on the screening of the market for the presence of certain chemicals in some textiles and also for the unauthorised presence of cords and drawstrings that can cause injuries and strangulation. 

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