Regulations call for all car seats sold in China to be certified

World Today

Starting Sept. 1, all child safety seats for cars in China must be certified by the country’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and Certification and China’s Accreditation Administration.

The regulation means all sellers, including e-commerce merchants, must obtain China certification when selling the products. Imported child safety seats must also comply with regulations.

China’s Ministry of Communications found that nearly 20,000 children under 14 years old die each year from injuries in road collisions.

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While safety seats are compulsory in the European Union and all 50 states in the U.S., China does not currently have a compulsory car seat law, although places such as Shanghai and Shandong province have introduced regulations making the use of safety seats compulsory for children ages 4 and under, China Daily reported.

A World Health Organization report showed that child restraints reduce the likelihood of a fatal crash by approximately 70 percent among infants and between 54 percent to 80 percent among young children. However the use of child safety seats in vehicles is relatively uncommon in China and many parents believe holding a baby in their arms is sufficient when riding in cars.

According to a poll by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, of 4,375 parents with children under 13 years old, only 12.1 percent used seats in their most recent outing in a car, China Daily reported. The poll did show that 81.9 percent of respondents believed it was necessary to use car seats.

More than 90 percent of child safety seats produced in China are sold overseas, the quality watchdog also found, according to the China Daily report.

The lack of use include misconceptions about the seats, unawareness about how to use them, and the price of seats, said Yan Fengmin, head of the watchdog’s Department of Law Enforcement and Supervision, China Daily reported.

However the lack of legislation is still one of the biggest problems threatening the safety of children on the roads, said Shang Wei, deputy director of the Road Safety Research Center under the Ministry of Public Security, at a forum on vehicle safety last year, according to China Daily.

According to the 2014 China Child Safety Seat Market Report issued by Market Research, the demand for child safety seats in China will post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68 percent from 2014-2017.

Story compiled with information from CCTV News and China Daily.