THE AUTHORITIES yesterday issued a long list of items dangerous to consumers, including toothpaste and body creams.
The items were listed in the latest bulletin by RAPEX, the European rapid alert system for dangerous non-food consumer products, which has issued multiple alerts about Chinese toothpaste in particular.
The brands have been names as “Spearmint” and “Spearmint Tri Leaf”, “Morning Baby”, “Cool Mate”, and “Amalfi-dent classic” and “Amalfi-dent herbal”. Another brand is all in Chinese. All of the toothpastes contain excessive levels of diethylene glycol (DEG), a substance used in antifreeze and as a solvent.
The European Commission asked all Member States to check whether the Chinese toothpastes containing DEG had been placed on their markets and to take appropriate actions if necessary.
The Cypriot authorities in a statement yesterday called on consumers to notify them if they come across any of the named brands of toothpaste, and also the other items on the list, which are named as Bigen Permanent powder hair colour, Picos-ci Body Clear Cream, Rodis Skin Light milk, and Rodis Skin Light Super Lightening Body. The hair dye came from Pakistan and the body creams from the Ivory Coast.
The hair dye contains 13.7 per cent p-Phenylenediamine (PPD). The maximum authorised concentration in finished product, in oxidizing colouring agent for hair dyeing is 6 per cent. The body creams contain too much sulphate.
Also yesterday, the Commerce Ministry issued a statement about a dangerous baby’s toy called Happy Baby; Baby Rattle Set, for children up to 36 months old, which was also made in China. The code for the toy is 0608S (06085), and it was imported by Jumbo Trading. According to the Ministry, 96 of the items have been imported since April this year. Some 35 remain with the importer. Tests showed that some of the small parts were dangerous for children in the age group targeted by the toy.
Last month, China promised to report regularly on how it handles European complaints about dangerous products. European Commissioner for consumer protection Meglena Kuneva, speaking amid a range of health scares involving Chinese food and other products ranging from tyres to toothpaste, said China had agreed to give a “detailed report on prevention and follow-up actions to European alerts” about problem products by October and then give quarterly reports.
A 2006 agreement demanded quarterly reporting on how China followed up on EU notices of dangerous toys, electrical goods and other products.
But Kuneva said China’s response so far had been inadequate.
“This has not been executed properly, because again two reports are not what we expected… What we need is to track down all of our notifications,” she said of the agreement.
Consumers who come across the cosmetic and toothpaste products listed by RAPEX should call 22-407106 or 22-407176, a statement said.
