Standards for children's furniture now compulsory  

中国首颁儿童家具强制性标准　防范意外伤害

从8月1日开始，中国第一部儿童家具强制性国家标准《儿童家具通用技术条件》正式实施。标准从保护儿童安全健康的角度，重点对设计或预定供3-14岁儿童使用的家具产品的安全和环保制订了强制性的要求。

Beijing (CNS) -- The General Technical Requirements for Children's Furniture became law on August 1 in China to protect children from being harmed by unsafe furniture designs.

The first compulsory standard for children's furniture in China specifies in nine categories of compliance, including safety requirements, warning marks and testing methods, according to Song Guangshen, vice president of the Interior Decoration Association of China.

Song added that, the details of new standards clarify that children should not be harmed by collision, squeezing, suffocation, the risk of combustion, toxins, lung pollution or poisonous gases such as methanol.

Statistics indicate 222.4 million children in China, ranging from newborns to 14 years of age, account for 16.6 percent of the nation's total population. Apparently 74 percent of these children have their own room thanks to improvements in living standards, however there were no guidelines or regulations regarding children's furniture. In fact there has barely been any research, design or training in this industry, and accidental injury happens to be the main threat to life and limb in this age group.