The ACCC is co-leading an international safety campaign aimed to promote safety standards for placing TVs and furniture in households, following a rise in infant deaths and serious injuries.
The watchdog is joining the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and eighteen other international regulators, to inform consumers of the dangers presented by unstable furniture and TVs.
The ACCC is also urging retailers to take “immediate steps” to promote such safety standards at the point of sale.
ACCC Deputy Chair, Delia Rickard, reiterates the danger presented by toppling furniture and TVs, and affirms the necessity for ‘anchors’ to be used for heavy items:
“Tragically, toppling furniture kills at least one child in Australia every year. Every day, around seven Australians are expected to have serious injuries requiring hospital treatment from toppling furniture”
“Tip-over incidents are 100% preventable. We strongly encourage householders to check every room in their house for toppling hazards and anchor any tall or unstable furniture or large TVs. If you don’t have anchor kits, you can buy them cheaply at hardware stores or furniture retail outlets”.
“Retailers should provide anchoring devices with household furniture and large TVs at the point of purchase to prevent them from toppling onto children. Our market surveillance found that only 12 per cent of retailers supplied anchors with all that furniture required them, which is not good enough, and we call on industry to make them available in every store”.
In conjunction with Australian state and territory regulators, the ACC has surveyed over 200 Australian furniture and TV regulators, to ascertain how retailers are adopting the National Retail Association’s new industry guidelines.
To mitigate the risks presented by toppling furniture and TVs, the ACCC has developed the ‘National Toppling Furniture and Television Safety Strategy’.
Ms Rickards affirms that the ACCC is committed to fostering a close a relationship with Australian retailers to ensure the strategy’s success:
“The ACCC will continue to work with retailers to ensure appropriate anchoring devices are supplied to consumers, better in-store signage is displayed, and warning labels are affixed to products”.
