Posts

Dementia product design

Well-designed products can help people living with dementia

Imagine if, when you are preparing a meal, you can’t distinguish a plate from the bench that it’s sitting on. Or you go to take a sip of juice, only to realise too late that it’s scalding hot tea. People living with dementia can’t…
Dementia design podcast

Podcast interview with Graeme Samuel AC, Chair of Dementia Australia

Among his many roles, Graeme Samuel is a Professorial Fellow at Monash University’s Business School, and School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine. I worked at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) when Graeme…
Netflix Broken series - furniture

Netflix documentary – how cheap furniture is killing children – lessons for all

4 minute read In a first for product safety, a new documentary exposes the story of how everyday household products can present unacceptable hazards. Still from Broken, Episode 3 Episode 3 of the new US Netflix ‘docuseries’,…
Influence consumer product safety
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New product safety laws being considered

3 minute read What changes are needed in Australian consumer policy to improve product safety? A Treasury consultation paper discussing a series of options to improve the current consumer product safety system is currently out for…
Electric kettle safety

Is your electric kettle safe? A lesson for all product suppliers

We all want to feel assured our kettles will hold themselves together when we're making a nice cup of tea. A handle coming away from a kettle full of scalding hot water is an obvious hazard - scald injuries can be very serious. There…
IoT product safety

Product safety in the Internet of Things

The 'Internet of Things'. Yes, it's a strange term. 'Internet' - yes. 'Things' - yes. But together? The 'Internet of Things' is the term that's being used for all the interconnected devices appearing on the market.  An increasing number…
furniture tip-over

Suppliers – choose packaging with product safety in mind

We’ve all seen courier vans buzzing around our streets delivering goods that have been purchased online. Are the couriers careful with the boxes? Are the goods in sound condition when they arrive? I recently read an article in Melbourne’s…
furniture tip-over
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Podcast interview – David Schwebel

In this podcast Gail Greatorex talks with David Schwebel, Professor of Psychology, and Associate Dean for Research in the Sciences at University of Alabama, Birmingham. David talks about a series of tragic toddler deaths and how his research…
furniture tip-over

Product safety podcast – Interview with Jeremy Opperer

Welcome to this Maze podcast. I’m Gail Greatorex of Product Safety Solutions and this is an interview I did with Dr Jeremy Opperer from Exponent in the UK while we were attending International Product Safety Week in Brussels last November. Jeremy…
Twin boys dresser rescue

Furniture tip-over real life video

Real life example - the need to anchor furniture A new video has gone viral showing twin toddlers in the USA climbing on an unanchored chest of drawers. The footage is extraordinary for several reasons: that it was all captured…