A number of national standards in the home furnishing industry appeared or entered the revision stage

National standards are normative standards formulated nationwide for a certain industry and a certain commodity. For consumers, the content in the national standards is the best weapon to protect their rights. When purchasing building materials, furniture and other products, understanding the content of the national standard in advance can well avoid falling into the consumption trap. Recently, a number of national standards have appeared or entered the revision stage, consumers may wish to pay more attention.

More stringent formaldehyde emission limits

The national standard called “Limits of Formaldehyde Release in Interior Decoration Materials, Wood-Based Panels and Products” is the best “self-defense weapon” for consumers to purchase panel furniture and other products. It is understood that since the use of the old national standard in 2002, it has been difficult to meet consumer demand. The new national standard has now entered the approval stage and is a mandatory national standard.

According to expert analysis, the content of the new national standard closely related to consumers mainly includes: stipulating the test methods for the limit value of formaldehyde emission of different types of products, and dividing the products into two levels, E1 and E2 according to the amount of formaldehyde released. Among them, E1 level can be used directly indoors, and E2 level can only be used indoors after finishing. The well-known boards and board products, such as particleboard, fiberboard and laminate flooring and other decoration products, all stipulate the formaldehyde emission limit value in this standard, and the formaldehyde limit value of many related product standards is also unified with this standard.

Faucet has a new standard

In the just-concluded 2014, faucets became the most concerned building materials. А “serial” of lead precipitation and excessive heavy metals touched the nerves of every consumer. Under constant calls, the new national standard of “Ceramic Sheet Sealing Faucet” was implemented on December 1, 2014. Consumers buying faucets in the future will not only be able to question whether the products sold by merchants have metal pollution problems according to the national standard, but also check the water-saving performance and quality of the faucet according to the national standard. Among them, the new standard sets limits on the amount of metal pollutants precipitated from faucets, and also requires 17 metal precipitates such as lead, antimony, arsenic, and barium. In addition, water-saving performance and use performance have changed. For example, the new national standard has increased the sealing performance requirements of the top spray shower and hand-held shower switch, increased the adhesion strength requirements of the plastic substrate coating, and modified the surface corrosion resistance requirements.

Update detection methods to facilitate rights protection

For a long time, the biggest problem in furniture environmental testing is not that consumers are unwilling to test, but how to achieve testing without destroying or breaking it. Although many consumers suspect that the furniture has environmental protection problems, they worry that it will be difficult to defend their rights after the demolition, and the losses will not be compensated.

Under the current standards, environmental protection testing uses the “dryer” method, and the draft for comments uses the climate chamber method. The dryer method refers to cutting the furniture into small pieces for testing; the climate cabin method is to place the furniture in the climate cabin and simulate the use environment of the furniture to achieve the purpose of environmental protection testing by detecting the air quality in the climate cabin. This test method is closer to the actual use environment of furniture, and the test results will be more scientific and rigorous. For consumers, it also reduces the cost of testing furniture. In addition, this detection method is aimed at a whole piece of furniture, rather than a single sample, and the results are more comprehensive and reliable.

Children’s furniture standards are richer

The new national standard “Safety requirements for playpens and similar cribs”, officially released on December 31, 2012 and officially implemented on May 1, 2014, is harmful to the structure, strength, warning signs, installation instructions, and poisonousness of cribs. Important information such as substances are specified in detail. This new national standard has also become the focus of the “Mom Consumer Group” **.

In the mandatory content of the national standard, the maximum limit of the elements that can be moved in the material is limited. In the structure section, the holes, openings and gaps, edges, points, corners, moving parts, and folding locking mechanisms of similar furniture And other details. According to these contents, if the purchased furniture product does not meet the requirements, consumers can use this to protect their rights.