On 25 April, Vera Jourova, the European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, presented a review of 2015 on the European Rapid Alert System (RAPEX), a platform set up by the European Commission in 2003 to inform the public about dangerous products that are withdrawn from the EU each week. As is usually the case in these annual reviews, the sectors with the highest number of incidents are those toys (25%) and the textile products (17%). And the country of origin of most of the items withdrawn during 2015 is China, which, incidentally, is also the main source of imports into the EU. .
Of the 2,072 products recalled following Rapex alerts in 2015, 62% (1,272) came from China, and this is a figure that must be taken into account. Jourova acknowledged that there has been little progress in reducing hazardous products originating in China, but she also took the opportunity to discuss all the initiatives currently being undertaken in this regard, including a visit by the Commissioner to China to propose ways of enhancing cooperation between the EU and the Asian giant, so that the Chinese alert system can better monitor exports to Europe.
Spain, for its part, holds its own record: for the second year running, it was the the country with the most recall notifications product notifications were sent to the European Commission, with a total of 239 notifications submitted. Hungary (238) and Germany (208) follow closely behind. There are two possible interpretations of this data: either the Spanish authorities are more concerned than their European neighbours about the safety of products on the market, or many manufacturers believe it is easier to import unsafe products into Spain than into other European countries. We leave it to the reader to decide, but in any case, the fact that Spain is the country with the most notifications should serve as an indicator of the effectiveness of our customs service. As for products originating in Spain that were recalled via RAPEX, the figure stands at just 13 items in 2015.
With regard to the grounds for withdrawal of the products, the main reason being the chemical risks (25%) – almost all cosmetics banned in the EU are banned for this reason, and account for 8% of the products withdrawn for this reason – followed by the risk of injury (22%), which was at the top of the list in the previous report, and the suffocation (17%).
As many of our readers will know, the Gabinete Técnico Farmacéutico M. Camps produces a weekly report on alerts from this system, paying particular attention to restrictions on cosmetics, tattoo inks and, to a lesser extent, the other products that fall within the scope of the self-care. And in our experience, the number of items recalled in these sectors is relatively low. This annual report from the European Commission puts the number of withdrawn cosmetics at 52, which represents just 2.5% of the volume of prohibited products.
However, at GTF we take a different view in our reports on the product category which RAPEX follows, in certain specific cases, such as, for example, those children’s make-up sets, which the European Commission regards as toys, but which we regard as cosmetics, or the false nails, the adhesive in which, as far as we are concerned, is a cosmetic, but which the European Commission classifies as a textile product.
You can view the full report on the European Rapid Alert System (RAPEX)