We are, as ever, extremely grateful for the access that so many schools and playgroups afford us so that we may perform this vital work in the field of child safety.
All test packaging contains either water or harmless placebo and naturally all of our researchers are DBS checked.
Whilst there is no substitute for putting potentially harmful contents completely out of the reach of little hands, child resistant packaging plays an additional and essential front-line role in reducing potentially very harmful accidents in the home and we simply could not perform our ISO certificated work to reduce danger to children without the support of schools and parents; and also the Senior Adults who take part in the adult testing.
Child safety, particularly protection from poisoning, is a crucial factor in medicine and household goods packaging. Child-resistant packaging was described by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 as the “best documented cause of the reduction of child poisoning in the developed world.”
At the end of any test that we perform, every child receives a short individual talk from the field supervisor about the dangers of opening such packaging in the home and agreement is obtained from each child that they will never attempt to open it in the home and always take it to an adult if they come across one.
In this way, we are able to not only ensure that packaging is fit for purpose on a national scale but also to provide a timely reminder to the children that we meet that they must never open these types of pack.
This is one the reasons that so many schools welcome our research. In many cases we are informed that we are the only type of research practice that they will permit into their schools due to the clear beneficial and protective nature of it for children nationwide.
All of the ISO standards for Child Resistant Packaging that we test to have a requirement that we find a quota of children aged between 42 and 51 months with an even split of boys and girls.
We are therefore dependent on the good will of all of the schools who allow us in to carry out this vital research to ensure that packaging is truly child resistant and therefore helps to reduce accidents within the home. A crucial local service on a truly international level.
