Keeping kids safe with a new international guide from ISO and IEC

We all want kids to be safe, yet more than 830 000 children die needlessly each year from injuries and accidents that could have been prevented*. What to do? A new international guide from ISO and IEC is here to help.

Road accidents, falls, burns and drownings are some of the key causes of fatal injuries to children, and while children’s toys and other products are obvious potential sources of risk, there are many other hidden dangers in products or situations not specifically intended for them.

The newly revised ISO/IEC Guide 50:2014, Safety aspects – Guidelines for child safety in standards and other specifications, addresses child safety everywhere, providing guidance to standards developers by describing an extensive list of hazards children might encounter and proposing strategies to avoid them. The guidance applies to standards related to anything a child could encounter, such as products of all kinds, packagings, structures, installations and built environments.

ISO/IEC Guide 50 also describes specific characteristics of children that make them more vulnerable to hazards, taking into account their different development stages and the ways they interact with products and environments.
The Guide is not just for standards developers: government agencies, manufacturers and consumer associations will also find it useful.

Article Reference: ISoorg