Treadmills

Under the mandatory standard, a treadmill is a piece of exercising equipment that consists of a conveyor belt rotated either manually or by a motor.  The user will normally walk, jog or run on this device.

On this page

• Hazards
• Mandatory standard
• Does this apply to your business?
• Complying with the mandatory standard
• Penalties and consequences
• Some key requirements
• Safety markings

Hazards

Friction burns full or partial thickness

The most significant hazard associated with the use of treadmills is the risk of friction burns, particularly to young children playing on or near a treadmill. Injuries can range from minor to serious burns requiring skin grafts, and may potentially result in permanent loss of the use of hands or fingers.

Mandatory standard

Trade Practices (Consumer Product Safety Standard) (Treadmills) Regulations 2009 prescribes requirements for this mandatory standard which came into effect on 6 June 2009.

Does this apply to your business?

Under the ACL supply includes:

• in relation to goods - (including re-supply) by way of sale, exchange, lease, hire or hire-purchase and
• in relation to services - provide, grant of confer. 

This mandatory standard applies to anyone in the business of supplying treadmills, including:

• manufacturers
• importers
• distributors
• retailers
• hirers.

To allow for staggered implementation, there are some cases where a mandatory standard or ban prescribes different compliance dates for the manufacturing, importing and supply of a product. Manufacturers, importers and distributors should check for this detail in the mandatory standard before embarking on production, importation or distribution of these goods.

Complying with the mandatory standard

To fully understand how to comply with the mandatory standard, suppliers must read the Trade Practices (Consumer Product Safety Standard) (Treadmills) Regulations 2009.  This information is essential to that ensure you and your business comply with the mandatory standard. 

Suppliers may also find these documents helpful in understanding aspects of the mandatory standard:

• Regulation impact statement — Treadmills
• Supplier guide — Treadmills.

Penalties and consequences

Suppliers can face heavy fines and recalls of non-compliant products if they trade in treadmills that fail to meet requirements of the mandatory standard. For more details, view Penalties and consequences.

Some key requirements

The requirements noted below are key requirements only. They may help to give suppliers a general idea of the detail they must look up in Trade Practices (Consumer Product Safety Standard) (Treadmills) Regulations 2009. This information may also assist consumers when choosing a treadmill.

While we provide some advice on this page to help you understand aspects of the standard you can visually check, suppliers must not rely on this information as a complete guide to compliance.

Safety markings

Labelling

• Treadmills must display a permanent warning label in an obvious location that is visible to the user of the treadmill when it is in use. 
• The warning label must have the following specific wording:

“WARNING: keep young children away from this machine at all times. Contact with the moving surface may result in severe friction burns.”

• The word ‘WARNING’ must be in bold and uppercase. 
• The uppercase letters must not be less than 5 mm and the lower case letters not less than 2.5 mm in height. 
• This warning label must be separate from any other warning label.