A guide to child safety regulations and standards in Europe

Regulation is an important element in child safety accident prevention. Many successful injury prevention interventions directly involve or are dependent on regulations and standards. Regulations can influence behaviour, products or the environment within which children find themselves. Reduced speed limits, the adoption of child resistant designs for cigarette lighters, the compulsory use of child resistant packaging for all children’s aspirin and paracetamol preparations, to give but a few examples, are all regulatory initiatives that have resulted in significant reductions in accidents involving children. This guide tries to present and clarify the role of regulation in child accident prevention in today’s Europe. The different aspects of the regulatory process are examined and a state of the art review of the standards and regulations currently in existence is presented. This review identifies not only the existing European regulations and standards but also identifies best practice where this doesn’t exist at the European level but rather at the national level. On the basis of this overview a number of priorities for action are identified. This is a general introduction to the very complicated regulatory process. There is however a list of sources for further information that deal in much greater detail with specific aspects of the regulatory process.