By Sun Liji and Liu Yuzhou/People's Daily |
In recent years, the student stationery market has been booming, and various styles have blossomed. Some are unique in shape, combined with cartoon images; Some new functions, electric pencil sharpener, electric eraser, desktop vacuum cleaner and other new stationery have been listed. These stationery, which can be used and played with, are favored by many students, but at the same time, they also bring some troubles.
Too novel stationery can easily distract students' attention. "Some students' minds wander during class because they play with stationery," said Ms. Sun, a primary school teacher in Sanmenxia City, Henan province. As a student's parent, Mr. Li from Dezhou City, Shandong Province, said, "The price of new stationery is not low, and children are keen to buy it, and the cost is not small. It also stimulates their comparison and vanity, which is not conducive to the healthy growth of children."
In addition, there are some stationery there are security risks. Zhang Xianan, a teacher at Liaoning University of Science and Technology, has done research on the chemical quality of stationery. She pointed out that some companies in order to produce soft, bright color, aromatic eraser products, often add a lot of phthalate plasticizers. If the chemical sticks to the skin or is inhaled, it can affect the growth and development of children and, in severe cases, cause major diseases. Some bags are added to chlorinated paraffin, so that the appearance of the bag is more beautiful, better feel, and more attractive to consumers, but chlorinated paraffin will also cause damage to the health of minors.
On February 1, 2022, the "General Safety Requirements for Student Supplies (GB 21027-2020)" (referred to as the "new National Standard") was officially implemented. The "new National Standard" limits the technical indicators of school supplies used by students aged 14 and under. Accordingly, the local market supervision departments have increased the supervision of student stationery through supervision and inspection and special rectification, and have recalled some problem products. For example, in April 2023, the Shanghai Market Supervision Administration issued information recalling more than 4.22 million products of a well-known brand of stationery, involving erasers, scissors, picture books, pen bags and other categories. The reason for the recall of some products is that the content of harmful substances such as phthalates and free formaldehyde exceeds the limit of the "new national standard".
Stationery industry entry threshold is low, production enterprises are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, sales channels are also mostly Internet platforms, for the market supervision has brought many new challenges. A few days ago, the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration notified the 2023 student stationery and other product quality supervision and random inspection, the results show that in 12 platforms 129 sales units of 144 batches of student stationery, 10 batches of products are not qualified. Among them, the limit of phthalate plasticizer in the plastic parts that can be touched by 7 batches of products is unqualified, and the edge and tip of 3 batches of products are unqualified.
"In order to make more profits, some companies do not use more expensive safe production materials, but choose low-cost but potentially harmful alternative materials." Zhang Sai Nan believes that on the one hand, the relevant limit standards for harmful chemicals that may exist in stationery need to be further improved; On the other hand, production enterprises have insufficient investment in chemical substances testing, which also leads to the risk of excessive chemical substances in some stationery products.
Huang Qichao, a reader in Shangqiu City, Henan, wrote to propose that the "new national standard" of stationery is more stringent in the detection of harmful substances in stationery, but there are still places that need to be refined. For example, the category of "toxic substances" is not broad enough, and some toxic substances are not included in testing and regulation. In addition to strengthening supervision, functional departments should also increase publicity efforts. "Beautiful stationery is a good thing, but never to look good at the expense of safety." Parents should also guide their children correctly, the role of stationery is to assist learning, and can not only value the 'appearance level' of stationery." Huang Qichao said.
The "new national standard" expands the product categories of compasses, book covers, ink, utility knives, manual pencil sharpeners, etc., and increases the requirements for the limit of harmful substances for products such as liquid adhesives, schoolbags, pen bags, colored mud, erasers and plastic parts, but in the face of endless new stationery, there is still a place that cannot be covered. Professor Ning Yuncai of China University of Mining and Technology proposed that the quality standards of the student stationery market should be further improved, in terms of the limit standards of chemical harmful substances, "according to the characteristics of a wide variety of stationery products, the relevant standards for the detection methods of stationery products can be increased to improve the accuracy of test results."
In addition, the safety standards of some stationery do not distinguish between preschool children and middle and primary school students, and consumers at different levels are subject to different degrees of harm from chemical harmful substances and have different perceptions of chemical risk. Ning Yuncai suggested that more efforts should be made to publicize the chemical quality and safety of stationery and remind students and parents to buy safer stationery products.
Liu Jifeng, deputy dean of the Law School of Civil, Commercial and Economic Affairs of China University of Political Science and Law, suggested that the whole chain supervision of stationery production, sales and after-sales should be strengthened, and supervision should be strengthened at the front end of the access market to prevent unqualified products from entering the market; At the same time, we should strengthen the product quality supervision of the sales link, and continue to increase the special rectification of student stationery; Improve the traceability mechanism of commodities, establish the information tracking system of the whole industrial chain by means of information technology, and use the defective product recall system to prevent the expansion of the scope of product damage; To increase the intensity of investigation and punishment, for products that do not indicate warning signs or Chinese warning instructions in accordance with laws and regulations, "three no" products, and products that exceed the standard of harmful substances, operators shall be ordered to remove from the shelves, stop sales, and be investigated and punished according to law.