Industry News
New Mandatory Sunglasses and Fashion Spectacles Safety Standard
The Commonwealth Minister for Small Business has updated the mandatory safety standard for sunglasses and fashion spectacles. The mandatory safety standard reduces the risk of eye disease, permanent vision loss and injuries associated with the use of sunglasses and fashion spectacles in several ways. It requires sunglasses and fashion spectacles to meet minimum design, construction, performance, and labelling requirements. Labelling allows consumers to select the right sunglasses for their needs, for example driving, and other requirements help protect from the harmful effects of glare and ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Long-term exposure to UVR increases the risk of cataracts and irreversible damage to the retina, eye inflammation, and eyelid cancers, with children being most at risk. Different categories of sunglasses provide varying levels of protection, and fashion spectacles provide limited protection.
Section 105 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) allows the Minister to declare a standard, or a part of a standard, prepared or approved by Standards Australia, as a mandatory safety standard for consumer goods. The updated mandatory safety standard for sunglasses and fashion spectacles incorporates updates in the voluntary Australian/New Zealand standard, AS/NZS1067.1 2016: Eye and face protection - sunglasses and fashion spectacles, on which the safety standard is based.
The updated mandatory safety standard adopts changes in the voluntary Australian/New Zealand (AS/NZS1067: 2016) which simplify testing requirements and closely align with international standards to reduce complexity for suppliers and test laboratories.Requirements from the voluntary standard which were previously excluded will continue to be excluded, where appropriate. Requirements have been excluded where they address non-safety related issues, where they are more properly addressed through provisions detailed in the Australian Consumer Law, or where they are redundant as they reference requirements particular to the voluntary Australian standard.
This mandatory safety standard comes into effect on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation which is from July 2019.
For more information goto: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L01391
