For safe products, the EU needs more than rapid alerts
To truly tackle today’s safety threats, the EU should see its rapid alert system, Safety Gate, as only one part of the solution. It must also strive to make legislation more effective, argues Sylvia Maurer.
The downsides of moving to digital-only leaflets for medicines with the EU’s pharma reform
In an upcoming EU reform of pharma policy, the pharmaceutical industry is pushing to replace paper leaflets in our medicines with digital leaflets that you can find online, but we don’t think that’s a good idea because of obvious downsides....
The EU law for safe products turned 20. How has it fared?
The General Product Safety Directive − the EU’s flagship piece of legislation protecting consumers from unsafe products − applied as of January 2002. But, because of the COVID-crisis, the directive’s twentieth birthday didn’t get the celebration it deserved. So, let’s...
Improving safety checks for some, but not all, consumer products flies in the face of reason
When we purchase new toys, clothes or electronics, we expect these to be safe. This is where ‘market surveillance’ comes into play: our authorities making sure products conform to our laws through controls and inspections. And as we are in...
The difference between a Stradivarius violin and your electric toothbrush
Antonio Stradivari was an Italian genius who created over 1,000 musical instruments of the finest quality. Several hundred of his famous violins survived the past 350 years through turbulent times, and their sound still rejoices us today. Their owners would...