Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) on Tuesday expressed concern over plasticizer content in floor mats sold in Taiwan and urged the government to make inspections of such products mandatory.
Lin told a news conference in Taipei that she received complaints from people who said they suspected floor mats made in South Korea contained excessive amounts of plasticizer, as they have a strong smell of plastic.
Lin said that in August she asked the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspections to inspect floor mats sold in Taiwan, several of which were found to contain excessive amounts of plasticizer.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Taiwan has plasticizer standards for floor mats, but there are no regulations requiring inspections be conducted to ensure public safety, Lin said.
Floor mats are not covered by the Commodity Labeling Act (商品標示法), which requires companies to label the materials their products contain as a safety precaution, she said.
“It is not unusual for us to see babies crawling on plastic floor mats,” she added. “I am concerned that it could be harmful to them if they touch such hazardous floor mats over a long period.”
“However, in Taiwan, authorities have not imposed any mandatory inspections of [those] products,” Lin said.
She called on the bureau to regularly inspect floor mats sold in the nation.
Lin also asked the Department of Commerce to require that floor mats be labeled to better inform consumers about the chemicals contained in the products.
Bureau inspection section chief Lai Chun-chieh (賴俊杰) said that although inspections of floor mats are not mandatory, the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) stipulates that vendors who design and manufacture such items must “ensure that their products comply with contemporary technical and professional standards with reasonably expected safety requirements.”
This means all products must meet legal standards, Lai said.
Vendors who fail to observe the requirements would be held accountable, according to the Consumer Protection Act, Lai added.
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