France – EN 14682: 2014 Safety of Children’s Clothing – Cords and Drawstrings on Children’s Clothing Harmonized

Vol. 856 | 23 Sep 2015

The EU Commission has approved that EN 14682:2014 should be adopted as a harmonized standard and will be published with the list of standards that are harmonized under the General Product Safety Directive.

Following this harmonization, the French version NF EN 14682, published on February 28, 2015, by the Association French Normalization Organization Regulation (AFNOR), was adopted locally in France as required by the EU General Product Safety Regulations.

Originally developed as a response to a European Mandate, the standard was made available in 2004 and harmonised in 2006. The standard was then revised in 2007 giving users more clarity, but with no technical changes, and was harmonised in 2011. The 2014 version of the standard gives even greater clarity, but with some technical changes.

EN 14682 covers all children’s clothing including disguise costumes and ski apparel up to the age of 14 years. The standard does not apply to child use and child care articles, footwear, hats, gloves and scarves, to name but a few.

Key technical changes include (but not exclusive):

• Belts (with the exception of tied belts or sashes) are excluded from the standard
• Inclusion of ‘back of the head/neck’ in body Zone A, rather than Zone D
• ‘Fringes’ are now to be classified as a series of decorative cords
• Free ends of fixed bows are considered as decorative cords

For more information on the subject, please contact:

Karine Roublique
Tel: +33 (0)2 32 63 31 67
karine.roublique@intertek.com