Cars, toys top on list of dangerous non-food products in EU in 2021

Motor vehicles and toys were the top two categories for products notified on the European Union's (EU) alert system for dangerous products in 2021, said Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, on Monday, reported Xinhua.

Dangerous non-food products are notified through the Safety Gate, a rapid alert system through which the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway, can share relevant information.

Once a product is signaled, members can take appropriate follow-up actions, such as removing the product from the market.

Motor vehicles made up 26 percent of the notifications in 2021, mainly regarding technical problems. Toy-related notifications amounted to 20 percent, and the problems detected were mostly about dangerous chemicals and button batteries.

In total, there were 2,142 alerts sent to the Safety Gate last year, and 4,965 follow-up actions taken by countries in the network.

The EU is also cooperating with other countries on product safety, such as the United States, Canada and China. China has cooperated with the EU on product safety since 2006, bringing in positive results.

"We strengthened our cooperation further in 2019 ... This has helped a great deal to make our work with the Chinese authorities more effective. We are seeing the results of this ... every single day," said Reynders.