The safety of children is a shared responsibility. This relates to the manufacturers and distributors as well as public buyers, educators and parents in their choice of product and the way it is used.

Not using the product correctly can affect the safety of the child. Obvious rules are often ignored.

Article L-221-1 of the French Consumer Code defines the general safety obligation as follows:
“Products and services must, under normal conditions of use or under other circumstances that may reasonably be foreseen by the professional, offer the safety that can legitimately be expected and must not be a danger to public health.”

This general principle, applicable to all products, was completed with specific regulatory obligations for certain categories of materials and equipment: Standards and directives.

All our products that are designed for use by small children, must meet very strict requirements in terms of abrasion and fire resistance and resistance to tearing, twisting, biting, and so on.
Each of our products that are subject to a standard have a certificate of compliance, issued by approved independent laboratories.

A few products which do not have to comply with any specific regulation: storage boxes, books, nappy bins and so on.

Wesco do not only say that they comply with the standards, they prove it! We will issue a statement of compliance for the product that you have bought, on request to our Quality department (for products that are subject to regulation).

Examples of standards and directives applicable to Wesco products

NF (French Standard) Crèches, NF Education and Nursery School
For some of our product ranges, we have NF Crèche, NF Education or Nursery School certifications.  These certifications are issued by independent organisms; they certify the quality, safety and performance of our professional products in an impartial manner.

                                                                    

Wesco complies with the standards, but our commitment does not end there.
Even today, too many articles made for children contain dangerous chemical substances.

The aim of the REACH regulation is to improve the protection of health and of the environment through a better identification of dangerous chemicals in the makeup of products.  This regulation replaces 40 existing directives within the European Union.  Wesco anticipate the actual implementation of this standard and are making their suppliers aware of its application.

• Phthalates
These are softeners used with polymers such as PVC (= polyvinyl chloride) to make them soft and flexible. They look like pure vegetable oil and do not smell/smell very little.

The 2005/84/CE directive regulates the use of two categories of phthalates:

1. Phthalates DEHP, DBP and BBP are forbidden in all plasticised material nursery nursing toys and articles (with a concentration of over 0.1%),
   
2. Phthalates DINP, DIDP and DNOP are forbidden in all plasticised material nursery nursing toys and articles, made for contact with the mouth (with a concentration of over 0.1%).

Wesco has extended this regulation to many other products, such as the whole of their ranges which are covered with coated cloth for example.

Bisphenol A
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical which has been in use for many years for the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics and epoxydic resin coatings.  It is found in many consumer products such as reusable water bottles, dishes (plates and cups) and baby bottles, as well as the interior coating of tin cans for food and drinks.

In our capacity as childhood professionals, we have taken into account the decision of the Canadian authorities to ban bisphenol A in baby bottles.  European authorities have not yet decided to apply the same ban (see article "Bisphenol A, impact of heating in a microwave" of the 14/11/2008, available on the French Food Standards Agency (AFSSA) website, http://www.afssa.fr)

Since January 2009 we offer a range of baby bottles without bisphenol A.  From January 2010, we will extend this in order to offer our customers a large choice of baby bottles and dishes, guaranteed to be free from bisphenol A.

• Formaldehydes
A formaldehyde is an organic compound of the aldehyde family = flammable gas. Dangerous to health (source of allergies, likely to be carcinogenic), this toxic substance is largely present in glue and household products.

To limit the risks, we can guarantee that during the manufacturing of our furniture we only use glue which does not contain formaldehyde.

• Azo Dyes
These are dyes which can release one or several carcinogenic aromatic amines.

In accordance with the 2002/61/CE directive, all our textile products are guaranteed to be free from azo dyes.