safety

ON FIRE !!

Following the ban in India, The Malaysian Association of Standards Users took the concerns of Malaysian con-sumers and did the labo-ratory testing on 4 popular brands of the all-time fa-vourite curry flavour instant noodles to find out whether or not the excess lead and MSG level pose risks to Ma-laysians. More on Pg 2

TAKATA RECALLWhat’s happening?Should you be concerned??

pg 3 & 4 pg 5

AIR FRESHENERAND THE RISK OF PHTHALATES?

IS THE WATER FROM THEWATER VENDING MACHINE SAFE?

TOYS SAFETY REGULATION - ARE YOU AWARE?

AUGUST 2015Volume 1

www.standardsusers.org

source : worldnew

s and 1080plus.com

insider

pg 6

INSTANT NOODLES, LEAD AND MSG...In early June this year, Malaysians were shocked with the headlines that Nestle’s Maggi instant noodles were being re-called from the shelves in India.

Nestle has 80% of India’s instant noodles market. Following the food scare and the damage it can create Nestle India car-ried out their own exten-sive testing and ingre-dients were tagged and traceable and external audit firms were used to check suppliers.

Nestle is now (as of on 23rd June 2015) pushing ahead with India’s first ever national recall, pull-ing some 27,400 tonnes of its popular Maggi noo-dles off the shelves.

Food Safety and Stan-dards Authority of In-dia (FSSAI) reported that laborato-ry tests found evidence that Nestle India’s instant noodle products are “unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption because the noodles contained lead (or Plumbum) above the permitted level and also the fla-vour enhancer monosodium gluta-mate or MSG (E621) which is not specified in the ingredients label of the products.

The Malaysian Association of Stan-dards Users tested 4 popular brands of the all-time favourite curry flavour instant noodles to find out whether or not excess lead and presence of MSG levels pose risks to Malaysians.The products were tested at accred-ited laboratory.

Samples of the instant noodles were obtained from 6 major retailers and a famous supermarket in Brickfields that sells products imported from In-dia.

Based on the results of the laboratory testing, Standards Users found out that the lead content in all samples (all vari-ables: brand, retailers, batch) were Not Detectable or ND. The average MSG content however showed varied result between the MSG content found in the noodles and in the seasoning.

According to the Food and Drug Admin-istration, the World Health Organiza-tion, and the Food and Agriculture Or-ganization of the United Nations, MSG is recognized as a safe food ingredient. The use of MSG and other related glu-tamates are generally perceived by the scientific community to be harmless. Glutamate also can be found natural-ly occurring in cheese and other pro-tein-bound form.

What the tests results imply is the cur-ry flavoured noodles are safe as far as lead levels are concerned! Whether they are healthy or otherwise that is left to nutrionists among us to discuss!

TAKATA AIRBAG RECALL

Airbags! The develop-ment of airbags began with the idea for a sys-tem that would restrain automobile drivers and passengers in an acci-dent, whether they are wearing their seat belts or not. Nowadays air-bags are mandatory in new cars and are de-signed to act as a sup-plemental safety device in addition to seat belt.

During an accident, the airbag sensors will de-tect the head-on col-lision and will trigger a chemical reaction. The propellant will be ignited and heat up a flattened metal canister with a portion of chem-ical inside, which then will decompose to pro-duce Nitrogen gas. The nitrogen gas that is gen-erated then fills the air-bag. Vents on the back of the bag prevent the whole thing from being

blown to bits. This pro-cess from the initial im-pact of the crash to full inflation of the airbags, happens in between 100 and 200 milliseconds, about half the time tak-en for a person to blink!

Takata’s automo-bile-company clients (Toyota, Honda etc) or-dered the largest air-bag-related recall in the history (2014-present). Takata took a charge of $307 million cost of re-placement. The defec-tive Takata-made air-bags were reported to explode with shrapnel, spraying drivers with sharp bits of metal, and have caused more than 100 injuries and at least eight deaths in the past decade including one in Malaysia

Following the massive recall by the automak-ers using the Takata

airbag, many would ask why is Takata the only one doing the recall? What makes a Takata airbag different?

The faulty airbags are being outlined back to the chemical compound Takata now uses for pro-pellant. Takata began using ammonium ni-trate in its airbags in the late 1990s, because of the chemical’s ability to make airbags inflate in a matter of milliseconds. According to experts, the chemical compound is naturally risky be-cause of its instability during a chemical reac-tion and it can and often explode violently. It is however a cheaper com-pound and the mixture generate gas more effi-ciently than other chem-icals, leaving behind a smaller quantity of po-tentially dangerous solid by-products. Chemical

experts also said am-monium nitrate has an inherent vulnerability to degradation when ex-posed to moisture and heat, which Takata has identified as a leading factor behind the airbag ruptures after several years of use. When de-graded, the compound can ignite with too much force in a crash and cause the metal inflator canister to rupture.

Manufacturer of airbag decide on their own se-lection of the chemicals use and the reaction in-tended.

Until now, there are no guidelines that de-cide the propellant, mixture and the vari-ables (temperature, moisture) that could happen in the sealed container of the air-bag.

The first incidents of the faulty airbag which cause a death happened on May 2009. A driver’s airbag inflator ruptured in a 2001 Honda Ac-cord in Oklahoma, US. According to the au-topsy report, the death of the driver was linked to the rupture after a piece of metal shrapnel sliced open her carotid artery causing loss of blood and consequently bled to death. The 2001 Honda Accord reported-ly bumped with another car in the school parking lot and categorized as a minor traffic accidents that most people just walk away from with no injuries at all.

How do you know whether your car is affected by the recall?

There are several ways that you can check whether your car is af-fected or not.

INSTANT READS

400 Million uneaten packets

of Maggi in India being

recalled

240240 million

annual sales of Nestle in India

63%Sales of Maggi in India’s Noodles

Market

5050 million dollar worth of noodles

burned

400

17.217.2 ppm - con-

centration of lead found in

the tested Maggi noodles

2.52.5 ppm - max-imum permis-siable concen-tration of lead allowed in in-stant noodles

PAGE 2 SAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015 PAGE 3

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SAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015SAFETY INSIDER SpEcIAl

WE HAvE THIS TESTED

Deployed airbag after a crash

car’s Man-factuer

Model

Honda 2003-2006 Acura MDX 2002-2003 Acura TL2003 Acura CL2005 Acura RL 2001-2007 Honda Accord2003-2007 Honda Accord 2001-2005 Honda Civic 2002-2006 Honda CR-V 2003-2011 Honda Element 2002-2004 Honda Odyssey 2003-2008 Honda Pilot 2006 Honda Ridgeline

Totota 2002-2005 Lexus SC2002-2007 Toyota Corolla2003-2007 Toyota Matrix 2002-2007 Toyota Sequoia 2003-2006 Toyota Tundra

BMW 2002-2005 BMW 3 Series sedan and wagon2002-2006 BMW 3 Series coupe and convert-ible2002-2003 BMW 5 Series sedan and wagon (including M5)2003-2004 BMW X52004-2006 BMW 325Ci2004-2006 BMW 325i2004-2005 BMW 325Xi2004-2006 BMW 330Ci2004-2006 BMW 330i2004-2005 BMW 330Xi2004-2006 BMW M32000-2005 3 Series Sedan2000-2006 3 Series Coupe2000-2005 3 Series Sports Wagon2000-2006 3 Series Convertible2001-2006 M3 Coupe2001-2006 M3 Convertible

Ford 2004-2006 Ranger 2005-2006 GT2005-2014 Mustang

Mitsubishi 2004-2006 Lancer (including Evolution and Sportback)2006-2010 Raider

Nissan 2003-2005 Infiniti FX 2006 Infiniti M35/M45 2001-2004 Infiniti I30/I35 2002-2003 Infiniti QX4 2001-2003 Nissan Maxima 2001-2004 Nissan Pathfinder 2002-2006 Nissan Sentra

Subaru 2003-2005 Baja 2003-2005 Legacy 2003-2005 Outback 2004-2005 Impreza (include WRX/STi)

Mazda 2003-2008 Mazda62006-2007 MazdaSpeed6 2004-2008 Mazda RX-82004-2005 MPV 2004-2006 B-Series Truck

Chrysler 2005-2010 Dodge Charger 2005-2011 Dodge Dakota 2004-2008 Dodge Durango 2005-2008 Dodge Magnum 2004-2008 Dodge Ram 1500 2005-2009 Dodge Ram 2500 2006-2009 Dodge Ram 3500 2005 Dodge Dakota2005 Dodge Magnum2003-2005 Ram Pickup (1500/2500/3500)

General Motor

2003-2005 Pontiac Vibe2005 Saab 9-2x 2007-2008 Chevrolet Silverado 2500/3500 2007-2008 GMC Sierra 2500/3500

SAFETY INSIDER SpEcIAlWE HAvE THIS TESTED

Does it Make Sense to spend the Cents for Scents?The Asia-Pacific air freshen-ers market generated total revenues of USD 1.2 billion in 2009, representing a com-pound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7% for the period spanning 2005-2009.

Almost every Malaysian is exposed to air fresheners in some manner: homes, cars, office, toilets etc.

Many fragrances are complex mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and some mixtures of VOCs in indoor air have been linked to a range of adverse health effexts and sick-building syndrome symp-toms.

The University of Bristol’s Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (AL-SPAC) published findings indi-cating that exposure to VOCs through frequent use of air fresheners and other aerosols in the home was found to cor-relate with increased earaches and diarrhea in infants, and with increased depression and headaches in their mother.

Many consumers do not know the contents in the air fresh-eners and ingredients they should avoid nor are they aware of the dangerous chem-icals that might be present in the air fresheners. The Malaysian Association of Standards Users (Standards Users) saw the importance of assessing the safety of these products and selected 6 types of different air fresheners in

the market to be tested for 4 ma-jor chemicals known to be present in the air fresheners:

BenzeneA carcinogenic chemicals compound founded to have link with cancer with exposures from less than 5 years to more than 30 years. Short-term ex-posure to high levels of benzene can cause drowsiness and dizziness. A possible mutagen

TolueneLong term inhalation of toluene can cause permanent damage to the ner-vous system. Inhalation or ingestion can cause dizziness, drowsiness, sickness, headache, slurred speech, slow movement, hallucinations, heart problems and coma. Possible risk of harm to the unborn child

FormaldehydeInhalation of formaldehyde can lead to irritation of the mucous membranes and respiratory tract. In severe cases, nausea, vomiting, caughing, larynge-al, respiratory depression, convul-sions and coma. Corrosives. Causes burns

phthalate6 common types of phthalates that can be found in air fresheners have effects such as irritation, headache etc. Also associated as hormone dis-ruptors, depression, developemental toxicity

Based on the laboratory test, each 6 brands tested is reported to con-tain at least 1 major chemical. Among the major chemicals, phthal-ate seems to be present in most of

the air fresheners and some have more than one type of phthalates. According to a study done by U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a mixture of phthalates at low dos-es can act in an additive manner to cause the same health hazards as just one phthalate at a higher dose.

From the findings, Standards Us-ers have proposed relevant Stan-dards Developement Agency to de-velope a document standards that can be of references to regulators, manufacturers and consumers. Standards Users also urge relevant ministries to:

• regulate the limits of VOC and EDS chemicals in air freshen-ers

• ban hazardous phthalates in consumer products

• require the manufacturers to provide the full ingredient list on the labeling to allow con-sumers to choose the best products

Consumers can try to avoid too much usage and practice good natural ventilation and hygiene at home. Consumers also can turn to natural alternatives to artificial air fresheners available such as plants (Serai etc) and charcoal.

Recalled models as of June 2015 in the US:STEP 1

Check Car’s manufacturer Malaysian website for notification of Product Update (Honda), Service Campaign (Nissan) etc.

STEP 2Other option is to send them an enquiry about the possibility of defective airbags. (Refer to the models info for more information)

STEP 3

After Step 1 or 2, an auto-respond usually follow through to confirm the receipt of the online enquiry. We would advise you to follow up via personal e-mail to their customer services stating your date of query, car registration number, owner’s name and personal contact number.

STEP 4

Keep following up until you receive a reply from your car manufac-turer indicating whether your car is indeed affected by the recent recalls. If it is involved, the email would indicate you to provide them with a copy of your identification card, JPJ Grant (Green Card) and any relevant documents. Please give a response to the email as soon possible.

STEP 5

An acknowledgement email will follow through within a few weeks. After that, you might have to wait for a period of time. Bear in mind to follow up vigorously rather than to wait, you can also send them a formal letter to their respective HQ address (check website)

STEP 6

When you receive an invitation for product update etc, set an appoint-ment in advance with your preferred Authorized Car dealer (Check website) by calling or visit the dealer with all the documents that you have (include copy of email corresspondence if no physical letter is available)

STEP 7

Follow through until you have received your replacement. Please note that the replacement for the defective airbag does not cost you any money unless other defects is included during your visit to the centre and if so, make sure it is done with your consent.

PAGE 4 PAGE 5source : w

eiku.comSAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015 SAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015SAFETY INSIDER SpEcIAl

WE HAvE THIS TESTED

Many Malaysians during the last water supply crisis did seek out wa-ter vending machine as a temporary alternative supply of drinking water before going on to bot-tled water. Some even use water from vending machine for drinking and cooking purposes even during normal times.

Thus Forum Air Malaysia (FAM) saw the importance to review and study the quality of drinking wa-ter from Water Vending Machines. The first review was carried out in 2008 which lead to the implemen-tation of the Food Hygiene Regula-tion to include water vending ma-chines and requirement for water sold through these machines.

FAM is indeed a forum for con-sumers and water sector players

to come together to ensure that water supply in Malaysia is above all safe, clean and continuous to support economic, social and en-vironmental well-being. More im-portantly, clean and safe water is basic human rights.

As reported by The Star on 19th August 2014, a total of 21 sam-ples collected by FAM failed to comply with the National Drinking Water Standard in Food Regula-tion 1985.

After the news report from The Star, public and netizens have heightened their awareness and were worried about what they are drinking every day from these machines.

FAM received several inquiries for example from the manage-ment of condominium that has water vending machines. Accord-ing to them, they do not know how to get approval/ license for

their water vending machines. The relevant government de-partments need to reach out widely to these stakeholders.

For consumer, FAM urge you to be alert and mindful of the conditions of the water vend-ing machines before buying.

Do not buy if you do not have answers for any of the ques-tions above!

Even if you do have the an-swers boil the water before you consume it to reduce risk of falling ill.

WATER VENDING MACHINE - IS IT SAFE TO DRINK?

Millions of toys are being sold in the market and new ones are con-tinuously hitting the stores each year. Toys are supposed to be fun and are an important for a child’s development.

Although several toy companies have made significant strides on product safety and sustainabili-ty, some toy manufacturers con-tinue to use low-cost, potentially sketchy chemicals and materials in their toys.

Those substandard toys may cause choking, tripping, stran-gulation and chemical hazards to children.

In Malaysia, the Ministry of Do-mestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) has made it compulsory for all toy products sold in Malaysia to comply with the Consumer Protection (Certifi-cation of Conformance and Con-formity Mark of Safety Standards) Regulations 2010 and introduced the Guideline on Mandatory Safe-ty Standards for Toys 2010 to help businesses that supply toys in Ma-laysia to comply with the legista-tion and requirements imposed.

Manufacturers are responsible to ensure that all products and ser-vices they produce or supply meet critical safety requirements. Yet, there are still incidents of non conformance to safety standards

which result in defective products or low quality services occur at any time along the supply chain. The Malaysian Conformity (MC) mark is used by consumers as an indication of safety of toys.

In an effort to review the effec-tiveness of the Toy Safety Regula-tions and its implementation, the Malaysian Association of Stan-dards Users (Standards Users) decided to:

1. assess the ability of consumers (mothers and caregivers / guard-ians of young children) to verify authenticity of the MC mark

2. assess the level or extent of awareness among consumers (mothers and care-givers / guard-ians of young children) about the toy safety regulations and

3. comprehensibility of the MC mark among these consumers

Standards Users is of the opinion that the format approved for the MC mark renders it easily faked or subject to misuse.

In order to test if consumers are able to detect a fake MC mark, the original MC mark found on the toys were replaced with ‘fake’ MC marking which was printed on sticker paper. The toys which do not have any MC marks were also attached with ‘fake’ MC markings.

The consumers were then asked to identify / pick a toy or toys which they think is safe among those displayed to them.

The study also included survey with questions related to toy pur-chasing considerations and what they understand about the MC mark.

From the survey it was found that consumers most probably prior-itize safety features when pur-chasing toys.

About 27 % of the respondents selected toy products according to their child’s preference. The most important finding from the study is that 65 % from total respondents do not understand the purpose of MC mark.

When toys were displayed to consumers, all of them had se-lected the toys according to visible safety features such as avoiding sharp edges, small parts and possibilities of getting injured.

Based on the responses, Stan-dards Users can derive that the MC marking was not one of the criteria considered when select-ing toys for their children.

Respondents who had some knowledge of MC marking were then asked to compare between original and ‘fake’ MC marking but found it difficult to verify if they are original or otherwise (features of original marking)

MC marking has been offical-ly introduced in Malaysia since 2010 and the Ministry of Do-mestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) had conducted awareness campaign throughout Malaysia from the year 2008 and it was intensified in the year 2010 with huge me-dia coverage on the implemen-tation of toy safety standard regulations.

But, many Malaysians are in the dark about the importance of MC marks in determining if a toy is safe or otherwise.

Recommendations

Strengthen and Intensify Aware-ness Sessions / Programmes at Point of Purchase

Online database (similar to the drug control authorities) of reg-istered and approved toys and vendors / manufacturers of toys - which can be verified with the registration number

Improve market surveillance and also review implementation of the Toy and Product Safety Regulations.

TOYS SAFeTY AND REGULATIONS ARE YOU AWARE?

PAGE 6 PAGE 7

Ask yourself the following questions before you de-cide to buy the water from a particular machine:

1. Does it have labels indicating the last mainte-nance date? When was the last maintenance done?

2. Does it have self-clos-ing, tight-fitting door for the dispensing compart-ment?

3. Is the machine rusty?

4. Any approval license from Ministry of Health Department for that ma-chine?

SAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015 SAFETY INSIDER AUGUST 2015

Example of toy with MC mark

Sampling of water from vending machine