A safety and quality inspection of children’s highchairs found that four units on the market had structural issues and one contained excessive levels of plasticizers, while two failed to meet label standards, the Consumers’ Foundation said yesterday.
The foundation worked with the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection to randomly inspect 10 types of children’s highchairs sold domestically, the foundation said.
The chairs should be structurally sound, not have small holes or hinges that could trap children’s fingers, and must be tested for harmful chemicals, such as plasticizers and formaldehyde, it said.
Photo courtesy of the bureau
In addition to inspecting the highchairs’ material, structure and stability, the foundation checked to ensure they had a “commodity inspection mark” and “Chinese product label,” it added.
The results showed that four highchairs failed to meet the National Standards of the Republic of China set for children’s highchairs, it said.
The four chairs had problems such as the use of self-tapping screws, lacking sufficient chair back height, having a too deep or too big hole at the bottom of the armrest, and having an insufficient recline angle, it said.
One of the tested items was found to have plasticizers exceeding the maximum permitted level, and two did not have commodity inspection marks or Chinese product labels, it added.
The foundation said the Clikk highchair from Norwegian brand Stokke had a hole deeper than 10mm, with a width between 7mm and 12mm, at the bottom of the armrest, and also failed to include the commodity inspection mark and Chinese product label.
The bureau said the companies selling the four items that failed to meet the “quality” standards have been informed to recall or correct their products within a given time, or they could face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,048 to US$30,480).
Stability is the most important factor in choosing a highchair, and children should not be left in a highchair unaccompanied by an adult, the foundation said.
Plasticizers and endocrine disrupting chemicals could have long-term effects on children’s health, it said.
People should look for the commodity inspection mark when purchasing children’s highchairs, and avoid letting children who are too young to sit on their own in a highchair, it added.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS