Setting new standards for safety

Press, 16 June 1983, Page 12

Setting new standards for safety

consumer life

Anne Ingram

The latest issue of the Standards Association magazine, “Standards,” introduces three new standards which will help to make our homes and holidays safer. Child resistant closures Fifteen to 20 per cent of all children in New Zealand are accidently poisoned in their first five years. Two-thirds of these require hospital or a doctor’s care. Traditionally, the advised preventative measure has been to keep all dangerous substances locked away.

However, a recent Christchurch study has indicated that the incidence of poisoning in houses which lock poisons away is not significantly less than in other homes. A high proportion of poisoning occurs when the poison is not in its usual storage place. Child Restraint Closures (C.R.C.S) could be the best defence in these cases. There are two types of child resistant packaging — non-reclosable: aluminium foil or laminated plastic strips; and reclosable: bottle caps. Certain classes of drugs are required to be packaged in child-resistant strip form. These are aspirin, iron, paracetamol, barbiturates, phenothiazines and tricyclic antidepressants. According to a Board of Health report, if this type of strip packaging was used for all tablets and capsules, then more than one-third of all accidental poisonings requiring medical advice could be prevented.

Apparently, strip packaging may not prevent a child from removing one or two tablets, but will markedly slow down the process. Not all medicines and

household poisons are suitable for strip packaging. The alternative is to package these with a child resistant cap. Examples of these have been around for some time, but their use has not been widespread as not all have been suitable for the proper storage of some medicinal drugs.

To overcome this problem, the Accident Compensation Corporation asked the Standards Association to prepare a standard for C.R.C.S.

N.Z.S. 5825: Specification for child resistant packaging. Part 1: Reclosable Packages, has now been published. It provides for C.R.C.S that will meet the needs of chemists, consumers and manufacturers. The Board of Health Report has recommended that the Department of Health adopt the standard,

and promote the manufacture of C.R.C.S, their sale through pharmacies, and their use by the public as standard procedure.

According to the Standards Association, there is little doubt that the department will attempt to implement the recommendation.

Newer and better child resistant closures are already on the market. Look out for them and use them wherever you can on medicines and dangerous household chemicals.

Code of practice for use of L.P.G.

The use of L.P.G. for cooking on boats and caravans is now widespread.

It is also often used for heating and lighting in areas remote from established camping grounds and power supplies.

■ L.P.G. has become the major fuel of the outdoor leisure and recreation market, according to Gas Association technical officer, Mr David Peace.

; Mr Peace was a member of the Standards Association project committee that wrote the newly published standard for the use of L.P.G. in caravans and boats. He points out that the

change to L.P.G. has not been without a few mishaps. Explosions and fires have occurred in boats because of the ignition of gas leaking from faulty installations. Concern has also been expressed over the use of plastic pipe for the gas in caravans. Up till now there has been no standard or legislation covering the installation of L.P.G. in boats and caravans. N.Z.S. 5428 has been written to fill this gap. It sets out specifications for the installation of gas cylinders, for the use of metal pipe, and ventilation requirements. Instructions are given on how to test that the installation is gas tight. Emergency procedures are also given. The standard does not lay down requirements for the appliances themselves. Rather, it specifies that they should be suitable for the fuel that is being used and be approved by gas approval bodies such as the Gas Association of New Zealand.

Intruder alarms

One predictable consequence of a power failure, severe storm, or an earthquake, is that cities are

left ringing with a cacophony of burglar alarms.

Such false alarms are annoying to the public and time wasting for the police, and have raised doubts about the worth of these burglar deterrents. Intruder alarms range widely in quality — some are satisfactory, others are poorly designed. Not all are competently installed or properly maintained. Yet a reliable alarm unit can be immensely valuable, scaring off a thief at the earliest stage of intrusion or giving an alarm elsewhere so the intruder can be caught redhanded. Because of the frequency of false alarm incidents it was considered necessary to have a new standard for burglar alarms.

N.Z.S. 4301: 1983 Intruder Alarm Systems, prepared with the help of representatives from the security industry, the Insurance Council, the Post Office and the Police, has just been published. It sets out requirements for the construction, installation, maintenance and operation of alarm systems. Adherence to the new standard should lead to a greatly reduced incidence of false alarms.