Your City Council
WHAT ROLE DO ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH OFFICERS HAVE?
Our Environmental Health Officers protect you from dangerous goods by ensuring that no unsafe consumer goods are manufactured, imported, distributed or offered for sale within the Council area.
1. Inspections and Sampling
Officers inspect premises throughout the City Council area and examine goods that are being offered for sale to make sure that they are safe and occasionally sample goods. These goods can then be tested in an accredited laboratory to make sure that they comply with the relevant safety standard.
When unsafe products are found, Environmental Health Officers can require shopkeepers to remove them from sale and can prevent manufacturers, importers and wholesalers in Lisburn from distributing them. Officers can also seize unsafe or dangerous goods.
If unsafe goods are found a system known as RAPEX Alerts means similar Departments across the rest of Europe are made aware of the product in question. If an unsafe product is found elsewhere in Europe Lisburn Environmental Health Service will be notified of the relevant details by means of a RAPEX Alert so that officers can visit premises concerned to ensure they are not on sale in the Lisburn area.
Similarly if an unsafe product is found in the Lisburn area the Environmental Health Service can put information relating to it on the RAPEX Alert system to notify other Departments across Europe. This creates a safe and consistent approach to consumer safety across Europe.
Examples of problems that can make products unsafe are:-
- unnecessary sharp points that could cause injury
- small parts which could cause a child to choke
- paint on a toy which may have excessive levels of lead
- exposed live electric parts that would cause electric shock to the user.
2. Investigate Consumer Complaints
Environmental Health Officers will also investigate complaints from consumers with respect to products that may be unsafe. Our aim is to identify any possible safety defects and to remove any unsafe products from sale.
The following are examples of two complaints that officers from the Environmental Health Section have investigated.
Defective Hot Water Bottle - This product was submitted to our department after the stem at the neck split and caused burns to the user. Hot water bottles must conform to a British Safety Standard to ensure they are safe and will not burst.
Defective Flex on an Iron - This product was submitted to our department as the user found that the flex wore away easily allowing exposure of the internal wiring. This may enable further damage to the insulator and eventually could lead to electric shock or fire.
The supply of unsafe goods is a criminal offence, and legal action can be taken against the manufacturer, importer, distributer or seller of goods that fail to meet safety standards.
REMEMBER we only deal with UNSAFE goods. If you have a complaint about counterfeit or faulty goods, or false or misleading descriptions, you should contact Trading Standards, Tel: 02890253900.