Safety Gate: the EU rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products
Comments
RetroTechie
lultimouomo
> An AC cord, 3-pin (earthed) plugs on both ends
You mean it had PLUGS on both end? That's not a cable, that's a murder attempt!
RetroTechie
No just regular male + female plugs. If not damaged, would look okay in all respects.
That was in the NL. Probably grey import, sold at flea markets, eBay / AliExpress purchase or similar. Doubtful such cords would pass under the radar of say, HP or the like. Then again, you never know. ;-)
mikestew
Plugs? Sure, with one end female and one end male. I assume you’re thinking of male on both ends (which, yes, should not be sold), but that’s not necessarily the case.
snypher
A female plug is referred to as a socket; any other case is just using the wrong terms.
thomond
What country/continent was this?
rabbits_2002
less than a year ago I was able to find male to male power cables on amazon lol
rainbowzootsuit
Search under "widowmaker" --- there should be a variety of options to suit your preferences.
codeulike
omg the baby self feeding pillows
edit: loads of them https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/ale...
I suppose they have had to really scale up the testing/alert system in the last decade or so due to influx of millions of new products
GordonS
Holy shit, how the hell did this ever become a product?! Absolute insanity.
TeMPOraL
Any parent probably invented the equivalent of one within the first six months of their kid being born - but I guess this is one of those things that are bloody obvious and desired, but not supposed to ever become products, like pacifiers on an elastic band.
entropyie
Em, no. Never had anything like this, don't know any other parents who did either.
GordonS
> Any parent probably invented the equivalent of one within the first six months of their kid being born
What?! No! (and yes, I'm a parent)
I don't detect any sarcasm in your post, but this is such an obviously dangerous idea that surely you can't possibly be serious?
TeMPOraL
I wasn't clear enough: I meant invented only, conceptually, not actually deployed.
My wife and I joked many times this should be a thing, but we would never have actually bought one, because it's clearly insane.
jstanley
I mean this is obviously a bad idea, but:
> During self-feeding, the baby is not able to control the flow of fluid. The fluid will continue to flow even if the baby is not swallowing. This may lead to choking.
Eh? Nothing comes out of the bottle if the baby isn't suckling. The baby is able to control the flow of fluid very easily.
jiofj
If you pinch the rubber tip (or chew on it) gravity will make fluid come out even if you don't suck.
fodmap
omg indeed. Are those pillow 'handles' suppose to work as handcuffs?
Tomte
Is this a new frontend to Rapex? Did they rename Rapex?
Because consumer safety warnings (often toys with swallowing/strangulating hazards) have been available on some EU web site for years (decades, probably).
Deukhoofd
Yeah they changed the name in 2019 (DECISION (EU) 2019/417), but it has existed since 2001. The name change was "For external communication reasons", probably due to it being read as "rape-x"
aaomidi
What an awful name…
jeroenhd
I didn't know the EU had a centralised platform for recalls like this.
It's quite interesting to see toxic perfume bottles listed right next to cars (https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/ale...). That's a lot of recall variety for one single platform!
rainbowzootsuit
I read the name and was looking for where the corruption scandal was, but instead it is a consumer protection site.
qwerty456127
[flagged]
_flux
Taking a word and trying to make it mean something else, such as "sugar is an inedible product", never sits really well with the recipients of the message—in particular when it is then circularly then used "well you can't eat sugar, it's inedible", which no doubt is the point here.
Meanings of words should be used to increase understanding between parties, not decrease understanding between them or push agendas, however well-meaning those agendas might be.
qwerty456127
You can in fact eat quite a menu of inedible things but this will probably harm you sooner or later. Edible or inedible is not a meaning, it's a convention. There even are some things which are considered inedible despite being harmless and possibly tasty, especially if you know how to cook them right and don't eat too much of them.
Did you know radium used to be a popular "edible" ingredient one day? They said it was good for your health. Then one day people realized it's poison. Sugar used to be promoted as having ealth benefits as well (as did cigarettes). And it has to be declared inedible to stop destroying health of billions of people.
jeltz
The headline says "non-food products", so no, that would be stupid. If it is indeed dangerous then it should be regulated as dangerous foods which is something EFSA handles.
qwerty456127
People mistakenly consider that food and some corporations support this misconception to exploit it for profit. Some people mistakenly consider silicagel food as well (there would be no need to write "do not eat" on it if nobody did) but this doesn't mean it actually is food. Some even say cocaine is a vitamin. There are many substances which occur in our bodies naturally and play important roles in its functioning but are not foods. For example thyroxine is not a food as well, although our bodies produce and use it in some amounts for vital purposes. Same way sugar.
fabian2k
Sugar is clearly food, it is easily metabolized and used for energy by our body. Sure it's not healthy in excess, but it is without a doubt food.
qwerty456127
What about erythritol? Is it food? It is not metabolized and not used for anything in our body.
timeon
Corn syrup is mostly US thing.
qwerty456127
I still encounter it as well as slightly-different yet similar substance names in many products ingredients lists in Europe [too] often.
pjc50
Sugar is entirely edible. Perhaps a little too edible. It's also an EU cash crop.
Found in a thrift store recently:
An AC cord, 3-pin (earthed) plugs on both ends, with 2-conductor wiring in between. Spotted 'cause cable was damaged. Even the cable itself carried markings like "3x 0.75mm^2" despite having 2 conductors in it.
This was a one-piece cable (with 'non-replaceable' plugs), so came like that out of the factory. Covered in all the usual certification / safety markings.
Yes... Chinese made. And certainly not a mistake but intentional deception + cost cutting.
I know, many Chinese manufacturers just don't care, and will produce whatever [someone] tells them to produce.
But BOY, how much I would have loved to have a word with manufacturer person in charge of that production run, and question their ethics. And maybe beat 'em up or something.
"You don't care about (potentially) life-or-death safety of random person using YOUR cord? If found by someone with authority, ENTIRE batch of such cords will be recalled, with you or your customer footing the bill, and you don't care about that either?"
I really have a hard time grasping the level of negligence displayed there. And "sorry I had no idea" doesn't apply - you're an AC cable manufacturer, for f%#! sake.
Sadly it's 100% certain such deadly-accident-waiting-to-happen products are commonplace out there. I've got more examples from personal experience alone.