Teen driver shocked by cancer warning on car seat covers
An Auckland teen hoping to ‘‘jazz up’’ her new car with a set of seat covers was shocked to find they came with a cancer warning.
After recently buying her first car, Jemma Renall-Norris, 17, ordered a set of seat covers from popular deals website 1-day.co. nz.
But the first-year law student and her mother, Debbie Norris, were shocked when the covers arrived carrying a warning about cancer and reproductive harm.
When their efforts to track down more information on the potentially harmful chemical or material in the covers came to nothing, Renall-Norris emailed 1-day about her concerns.
Although the company’s website advised customers to ‘‘anticipate a delayed response’’ to queries, Renall-Norris was still waiting more than a week later.
That was not good enough, she said.
‘‘I wanted to know what the chemical was. I definitely won’t be using them and I wouldn’t have bought them if they had shown the warning on the website.
‘‘They’re still packaged and ready to send back to 1-day, if I ever hear from them.’’
Norris said consumers assumed a product was fit for purpose, both physically and from a health perspective.
‘‘I don’t believe anyone would risk purchasing these if an image showing this warning on the package was visible, regardless of this risk not being proven in New Zealand.
‘‘I am sure if some substance has been shown to cause cancer and reproductive harm to Californian humans, then humans from Aotearoa would also be at risk.’’
Following Sunday Star-Times inquiries, 1-day owner The Warehouse Group said RenallNorris had been contacted and refunded for the seat covers.
‘‘This item was sold by our third party merchant, Crazy Deals, on our 1-day platform and is sourced from overseas,’’ a 1-day spokeswoman said.
‘‘This warning label is commonly found on products which may originally be produced for the California market, and meet the relevant laws which are required in that market.’’
New Zealand did not have an equivalent requirement in its laws and all 1-day products complied with relevant local laws, including health and safety standards, she said.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said the concerns raised by Renall-Norris and her mother related to a Californian warning label which did not have any standing in New Zealand’s product safety regime.
The ministry’s national manager of consumer protection, Mark Hollingsworth, said New Zealand had no mandatory product safety requirements for car seat covers or their labelling.
Instead, obligations were set out in the Consumer Guarantees Act and it was the supplier’s responsibility to provide products that were of acceptable quality and safe to use.
If a product posed a risk of injury or harm, the supplier would be liable for mitigating the risks, Hollingsworth said.
Under Californian law, warning labels were mandatory on products containing a chemical that had, or may have, a greater than a one-in-100,000 chance of causing cancer over a 70-year period, or which may exceed 1/1000th of the ‘‘no observable effect level’’ related to birth defects or reproductive harm.
Businesses could choose to include a warning based simply on the knowledge or an assumption that a product contained a listed chemical, Hollingsworth said.
‘‘It is also worth noting that there is no requirement for the business to evaluate or communicate whether the presence of any listed chemical poses any risk to the consumer, or if normal use would result in exposure.’’
Under New Zealand law, products did not require warning statements unless there was an identified risk and the warning on Renal-Norris’s seat covers, he said.
However, consumers with any concerns about the safety of a product should return it to the place of purchase and request a refund.
‘‘If the business refuses then the consumer may be able to make a claim under the Consumer Guarantees Act, but they may need to show that the product does actually pose a safety risk.’’