
Wire in your Barbecued Sausage?
It’s summer in Australia and barbecues everywhere are being fired up. There’s always a joke about what’s inside a meat sausage – sometimes euphemistically called a ‘mystery bag’. But even though we’re prepared to take our…

Placing product orders for June 2022 – Button battery regulations!
If your business sells consumer goods, you will be placing orders now for June next year. If these products or their accessories include button batteries, they will need to comply with the Australian mandatory safety standards which take…

A tribute to Wen Huang – Product safety professional
2 minute read
Last month the Australian product safety community lost a valuable member. Wen Huang passed away after a long illness and will be very much missed by his many colleagues in the consumer product sector.
I knew Wen…

Women in consumer product safety
3-minute read
In the past week, while reading about International Women’s Day, I paused to consider the number of women involved in consumer product safety. I decided to write this article to reflect on the key role that women have…

Associations need to act on button battery products
4 minute read
Any Australian business that supplies products that use small silver ‘button’ batteries – or supplies the batteries themselves - will need to comply with new mandatory safety standards under the Australian Consumer Law…

How safe are Ear buds?
4 minute read
"MAN GETS EAR BUD STUCK IN THROAT WHILE SLEEPING"
That seems like a surprising headline - but it’s a logical risk if you stop to think about it.
In product safety we always caution parents not to leave any loose…

Where would you be without compliance? Celebrate Compliance Officer Day
4 - minute read
Compliance Officer Day is celebrated on 26 September each year. This year it falls on a Saturday, so you might like to take a moment before then to acknowledge your product safety compliance manager and…

Farewell and thanks to a valued colleague – Martin Rushton
3 minute read
We will shortly see the retirement of a veteran consumer product safety colleague. I’d like to pay tribute to Martin Rushton, who has been the mainstay of New Zealand’s product safety agency for around 15 years. (He…

Button battery regulation, Australia
5 minute read
There’s three things that mark out button batteries as a critical product safety hazard – the severity of the injuries, the ongoing rate of those injuries and the breadth of exposure to the product.
Swallowing a…

Things to watch out for while the kids are stuck at home
3 minute read
Keeping the family
safe in isolation
When kids are
stuck indoors, they can get creative in how they keep themselves entertained. This
article highlights three known hazards around the home that parents and carers
need…