Kids’ shoes, helmets fail quality test, says council

NEARLY two thirds of children’s helmet samples tested by the Shanghai Consumer Council failed quality tests, it announced yesterday ahead of Children’s Day.

They were substandard in terms of stability and strength, weight and collision performance, the council revealed.

The council bought 30 samples of children’s helmets priced between 38 yuan (US$5.30) and 199 yuan, and 19 were found to be substandard.

Among them, 10 failed for strength properties of helmet wearing installation, which can lead to drop-off of fittings and belts, and suffocation in serious cases, causing safety hazards, said Lu Bing, an expert.

Helmets of Yaku, GUB, Hudora and Cougar brands were on the substandard list, according to the council.

Three samples — Healthcare, Povit and Hudora — failed for collision performance.

“The index signifies the protection performance of helmets on children when their heads hit hard items after falling down,” said Lu.

Inspection results

The national standard on helmet states that the weight of helmets must be marked and the gap of real weight and marked one should be below 30 grams as the maximum.

The Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation also announced its inspection results on children’s helmets.

In total, 32 batches of children’s sports helmets were checked and 31.25 percent failed for properties such as stability and strength or structure, the market watchdog warned.

Children’s helmets from Long Feng and sold on online shopping platform yhd.com, and Migao Shaba sold on Tmall.com were on the substandard list.

The administration has ordered involved businesses to stop the sales of these products immediately, clear their stocks, and refund consumers.

The Shanghai Consumer Council also checked 50 samples of children’s shoes, among which 30 were bought from physical stores and 20 online.

They were priced between 29.9 and 1,083 yuan.

In total, 11 were substandard for accessories, heavy metal content and phthalic acid esters.

Six failed for accessories which were not fixed strongly, leading to potential hazards of children swallowing them, the council warned.

Two samples from Joy & Mario brand were on the list, according to the council.