The use of child-resistant packaging needs to be expanded to a wider range of everyday household chemical products

- Measures to prevent child safety incidents involving household chemical products should be strengthened -

    Child safety incidents involving everyday chemical products commonly used in households occur every year. However, it has been found that child-resistant packaging* requirements, effective in preventing safety incidents, are limited only to certain product items compared to major advanced countries, and thus the use of packaging needs to be expanded to a wider range of product items.

* packaging and containers designed or constructed to be significantly difficult for children under five years of age to open within a reasonable time  

□ Child safety incidents related to everyday chemical products used in households occur every year.

    The safety incidents involving children 15 or younger regarding everyday household chemical products reported to the CISS* of the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) for the past 3 years (from 2015 to 2017) were 200 cases in total, and in particular, safety incidents involving children 5 or younger were 179 cases (89.5%), accounting for the largest portion.

* The CISS (Consumer Injury Surveillance System) collects, analizes, and assesses data through 80 consumer injury information providers including 62 hospitals and 18 fire stations designated under the Framework Act on Consumers, and 1372 Consumer Counseling Center.

    The product items causing safety incidents most frequently were detergents (69 cases or 34.5%), followed by air fresheners (31 cases or 15.5%), dehumidifiers (29 cases or 14.5%) and synthetic detergents (19 cases or 9.5%). The types of incidents were drinking chemicals (155 cases or 77.5%), contact with eyeballs (39 cases or 19.5%), skin contact (4 cases or 2.0%), etc., and injured areas and symptoms were damages to digestive organs and pains (153 cases or 76.5%), followed by damages to eyeballs (38 cases or 19.0%) and skin damages (76cases or 3.5%), etc.

□ 6 out of 10 children have experiences of having opened the containers of everyday household chemical products on their own.

    The result of the survey for 500 parents who were rearing children aged 3-4 nationwide showed that 296 children (59.2%) had experiences of having opening the containers of everyday household chemical products on their own.

    The everyday chemical products opened by the children were detergents (32.4%), adhesives (23.5%), air fresheners (16.6%), dyestuffs (7.0%), etc. and the formulation types of the chemicals opened were gels and emulsions (28.6%), liquids (27.2%), powders (17.9%), etc. (multiple responses)

□ 14.2% of the children who opened everyday household chemical products experienced safety incidents.

    202(49.4%) out of 296 respondents who replied that their children had experiences of having opened everyday chemical products used in households on their own said their opening didn’t lead to any safety incidents, but, 149(36.4%) respondents said that their children spilled the contents of the chemical products and were exposed to risks of safety incidents, and 58(14.2%) respondents said that their children got first-aid at home or medical treatment at hospitals due to skin contact or drinking chemicals (multiple responses).

    The chemical products causing first-aid or medical treatment were air fresheners(19 cases or 32.8%), detergents (13 cases or 22.4%), adhesives (6 cases or 10.3%), etc. and their formulation types were gels/emulsions (22 cases or 37.9%), powders (18 cases or 31.0%), capsules (7 cases or 12.1%), etc.

    The most common types of incidents were skin contact (37 cases or 63.8%), followed by inhalation or drinking (19 cases or 32.8%), and contact with eyeballs (2 cases or 3.4%).

□ The use of child-resistant packaging needs to be expanded to more diverse everyday chemical product items.

    In accordance with the 「Act on Registration and Evaluation, etc. of Chemical Substances」(hereinafter, referred to as‘Chemicals Registration and Evaluation Act’) and the 「Designation of Risk-Concerned Product and Safety and Labelling Standards(MOE Notification No. 2018-12)」, child-resistant packaging is required only for liquid products that contain more than a certain amount of specific chemicals for 5 product items (detergents, coatings, adhesives, air fresheners, antifreeze liquids). However, powdered, emulsified, and gel-type household chemical products causing child safety incidents frequently have been exempt from the child-resistant packaging requirement.

    In addition, capsule-type synthetic detergents, etc. causing safety incidents frequently have been excluded from the requirement, indicating that the requirement is limited only to certain product items. And cookwares, dishwashers, automobile fuel additives, fire igniters, etc. regulated under laws other than the 「Chemicals Registration and Evaluation Act」 have been also excluded from the child-resistant packaging requirement, showing that those products are in the blind spot of safety management.

* cookwares and dishwashers (「Public Sanitation Management Act」), automobile fuel additives (「Clean Air Conservation Act」), fire igniters (「Occupational Safety and Health Act」 & 「Safety Control of Dangerous Substances Act」)

    On the other hand, in major advanced countries including the E.U., chemical substances are classified by health hazard, and all consumer products containing more than a certain amount of chemicals with acute toxicity, skin corrosiveness, specific target organ toxicity, aspiration toxicity, etc. are required to use child-resistant packaging regardless of product item and formulation type. Therefore, in order to preemptively prevent child safety incidents, Korea also needs to expand the use of child-resistant packaging to a wider range of products.

    Based on the survey results, the KCA plans to request the Ministry of Environment, etc. to ▲expand the use of child-resistant packaging to more various everyday household chemical products to ensure child safety.

    Furthermore, it has also advised consumers to ▲keep household chemical products out of the reach of children, and ▲close the containers of products packaged in a child-resistant manner tightly again after use.