Child restraint systems (CRS) can reduce child injury by 71% to 82% when installed correctly. Furthermore, compared to not using a child restraint at all, a forward-facing CRS reduces the risk of serious injury by 60%, while a rearward-facing CRS reduces the risk by 90% .

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ANEC welcomes yesterday’s publication of the European Commission’s proposal for mandatory provisions to ensure the accessibility of public sector web-sites by 20151. Many consumers with disabilities, and older consumers, are still not able to reap the benefits of the digital society, including e-government services, due to inaccessible web-sites.

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In the weeks before Christmas, many parents will have the annual pleasure of choosing the right toys for their children. Although the new Toy Safety Directive, which entered into force in July 2011, certainly brought some improvements to toy safety in Europe, ANEC calls upon policy makers to take the health of children more seriously by significantly strengthening the chemical requirements for toys.

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Environmental Footprint – doubtful value for consumers while opening the door to market distortion for industry

Orgalime, the European engineering industries association, and ANEC, the European consumer voice in standardisation, are deeply concerned that the Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment is in the process of developing a harmonised methodology for the calculation of the environmental footprint of products, services and organisations with a view to assess, display and benchmark their environmental performance based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach.  This could mean that the proposed methodology and its use in policy making may increase complexity and costs while providing questionable benefit, if any, for industry or the consumer.

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