The National Market Supervision and Administration Bureau has issued a notice on the '2019 Children and Student Products Safety Protection Campaign Work Plan,' focusing on four key products: school running tracks, children's toys, student stationery, and school uniforms. The plan calls for increased quality supervision and strict enforcement of non-conforming products, and severe punishment for illegal and non-compliant behaviors.
The notice highlights the need to focus on sampling raw materials used in the construction of school running tracks, such as plastic granules and adhesives, and to test their safety performance indicators. It also aims to provide technical support for implementing the requirements of GB 36246-2018 'Middle School and Primary School Synthetic Material Surface Layer Sports Grounds.'
The plan emphasizes comprehensive, stringent, and multi-party governance to ensure the quality and safety of children's and student products. It aims to provide a sense of comfort for children in terms of wearing, using, and playing.
Notification from the Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation on the Issuance of the '2019 Children and Student Products Safety Protection Campaign Work Plan'
To the provincial, autonomous region, municipal market supervision bureaus, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Commission:
The '2019 Children and Student Products Safety Protection Campaign Work Plan' has been approved by the 4th Bureau Meeting of the State Administration for Market Regulation on March 18, 2019. It is now issued to you for implementation in light of your specific circumstances.
Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation
Work Plan for the 2019 Children and Student Products Safety Protection Campaign
The quality and safety of children's and student products are closely linked to the physical and mental health of young people, impacting family happiness and social harmony. In recent years, under the joint efforts of various levels of market supervision departments and all sectors of society, the overall situation regarding the quality and safety of children's and student products in China has shown a steady improvement. However, due to factors such as uneven economic and social development and weak awareness among some enterprises regarding quality and safety, as well as integrity, certain products and areas still face challenges in terms of quality and safety, drawing significant public attention. To implement the requirements of the National Market Supervision Work Conference, and to safeguard the quality and safety of children's and student products, this work plan has been formulated.
I. General Requirements
(1) Guiding Principles
Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and its second and third plenary sessions. We will earnestly implement the decisions and plans of the central government and the State Council, leveraging the opportunity provided by the reform of market supervision institutions to integrate regulatory resources, strengthen multi-party cooperation, enhance regulatory efficiency, and solidify the safety assurance line for children's and student products. This will ensure that young people are comfortable in their attire, use their products with ease, and enjoy themselves.
(2) Basic Principles
We will adhere to a problem-oriented approach. Focusing on products closely related to the healthy growth of young people, such as toys, stationery, school uniforms, and raw materials for school running tracks, we will continue to conduct supervisory inspections and special rectification campaigns. We will continuously improve preventive measures to effectively mitigate systemic and regional risks.
We will adopt a comprehensive regulatory approach. Leveraging the integrated advantages of the institutional reform, we will coordinate the use of various functions to apply multiple regulatory measures, forming a synergy in market supervision law enforcement.
We will enforce strict regulation. We will severely punish quality and safety violations that harm the health of young people, enhancing the deterrent effect of market supervision law enforcement.
We will promote multi-party governance. We will leverage the self-regulatory role of industry associations, the technical support role of testing institutions, the publicity role of the media, and the supervisory role of public opinion and the general public to promote social governance.
(3) Work Objectives
Through the Children and Student Products Safety Guardian Action, we have identified the production enterprises of key children and student products and assessed the quality and safety conditions in the industry. We have rectified problematic industrial clusters, cleared out non-compliant products, and prosecuted major cases of quality and safety violations to maintain a high-pressure regulatory environment for children and student product quality and safety. Multiple educational and promotional activities have been organized to enhance students' and parents' awareness of quality and safety issues and improve their safety prevention capabilities.
II. Key Work
The action also focuses on school running track raw materials. Key inspections are conducted on the plastic granules and adhesives used in constructing school running tracks to test their safety performance indicators. We actively provide technical support for the implementation of the GB 36246-2018 Standard for Synthetic Material Surface Layers of Sports Grounds in Primary and Secondary Schools.
The action also includes requirements for children's toys, student stationery, school uniforms, and school running track raw materials.
III. Measures
Gather Basic Information. The provincial, autonomous region, municipal market supervision bureaus, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Market Supervision Bureau (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level market supervision departments) should organize grassroots market supervision departments to identify the number and information of production enterprises of children's toys, student stationery, school uniforms, and school running track raw materials within their jurisdictions. They should establish a database according to unified requirements and report it; they should also rely on technical institutions and industry associations, combining historical consumer complaints, media reports, public opinion monitoring, and regulatory enforcement data, to analyze the quality and safety conditions of these four categories of products in their regions, identify issues, analyze causes, and propose solutions. Municipal-level market supervision departments in industrial clusters should also conduct quality and safety analyses on their local main products.
Conduct Specialized Governance in Production Fields. At the municipal and county (district) levels, as well as at grassroots market supervision stations, children's toys, student stationery, school uniforms, and school running track raw materials should be prioritized for inspection. All production enterprises should be subject to routine supervision and hazard identification according to the 'double random, one open' regulatory requirements. Focus on reviewing purchase records and test reports of raw materials to ensure their compliance.
Municipal and county-level market supervision departments in industrial clusters should conduct specialized governance targeting prominent issues. They should intensify quality supervision spot checks, severely punish products that do not meet mandatory standards, and crack down on illegal and non-compliant behaviors. They should promote industry associations to widely carry out quality improvement and quality breakthrough activities, and encourage technical institutions to provide public training on quality and safety and promote the implementation of mandatory standards. They should guide industry associations to initiate self-regulatory initiatives for quality and safety, advocating for self-discipline and compliance in the children's and student products industry, and jointly opposing non-compliant enterprises.
Measures also include specialized governance in school surroundings, online business supervision, and special educational campaigns.
IV. Requirements
Strengthen Leadership and Organization. Each provincial market supervision department should strengthen the leadership and organization of the Children and Students' Products Safety Protection Campaign. They should clarify their responsibilities, and in conjunction with this work plan and local realities, conduct inspections and sort out key products, key markets, and key areas. They should develop more targeted campaign plans and work measures based on these inspections.
Enhance the Handling of Issues. Local market supervision departments must seriously handle discovered quality and safety incidents, file cases and investigate a batch of substandard products, rectify and govern a batch of problematic enterprises, eliminate and ban a batch of illegal enterprises, and transfer a batch of major cases. Confiscate and destroy counterfeit and shoddy products with serious quality and safety hazards in accordance with the law to enhance the deterrence of regulatory law enforcement. Strengthen enterprise credit supervision, collect relevant credit information in a timely manner to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, and publicize it to the society in accordance with the law. Include illegal enterprises in the 'blacklist', increase the intensity of joint punishment for dishonesty, and urge enterprises to implement their main responsibilities for quality and safety.
Enhance Emergency Response. Focus on network public opinion, media reports, and consumer complaints about children and students' product quality and safety issues. Quickly collect and analyze information to promptly handle potential quality and safety problems. Develop emergency response plans based on the
Strengthen News Promotion. Utilize various channels such as television, radio, newspapers, and the internet to widely publicize the progress and achievements of the Children and Students' Products Safety Protection Campaign. Highlight typical cases to deter illegal activities. Especially during the
New National Standard for 'PVC Tracks': GB36246-2018 for Middle and Primary School Synthetic Material Surface Sports Fields
In response to the recent incidents of toxic running tracks in schools, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of China officially released the new national standard GB36246-2018 for Middle and Primary School Synthetic Material Surface Sports Fields on May 2018. The new standard took effect on November 1, 2018, replacing the national standard GB/T 19851.11-2005 for Middle and Primary School Sports Equipment and Grounds - Part 11: Synthetic Material Surface Sports Fields.
This mandatory national standard, known as the 'New National Standard for PVC Tracks', was developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Education after over two years of revision, more than 100 expert meetings, and extensive on-site investigations. It collected data from hundreds of companies and underwent countless validation tests. The implementation of this new standard will undoubtedly promote the sports flooring industry towards greater standardization and self-regulation, ensuring the health of all users of sports fields.
