International Product Safety Week was hosted by the European Commission in Brussels between 15th and 19th October 2012.
Following a series of product recalls the Committee on Consumer Policy of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched an initiative to examine what was happening and what could be done to enhance co-operation between stakeholders. In 2010 an OECD Working Party on Consumer Product Safety was established to bring stakeholders together to:
- Identify safety issues at an early point;
- Explore ways to address safety concerns more effectively;
- Provide a robust platform for sharing information on practices and policy developments, so that responses to emerging issues can be dealt with more efficiently and effectively.
The working party has created a global portal on product recalls (GlobalRecalls), which was launched on 19 October 2012. The web platform enables jurisdictions to upload their product recalls information onto a single platform, in a timely and multilingual fashion.
The portal is expected to provide benefits for governments, businesses and consumers as users will be able to access information provided by countries in the language of their choice on a global basis.
Other topics being discussed at the event include cross-border product recalls, risk assessments and the harmonisation of global regulatory systems.