Published
The Commonwealth Assistant Treasurer has made a new mandatory safety standard for baby walkers which commences on 15 February 2013.
This new safety standard replaces a previous mandatory standard for baby walkers. The new safety standard references the 2012 version of the technical standard published by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), F977-12 Standard Consumer Safety Specifications for Infant Walkers.
Baby walkers which are compliant with the previous mandatory standard may still be sold until 31 March 2014: i.e. the new mandatory standard provides a transition period of over 13 months. During this transition period, suppliers have the option of meeting the referenced sections of the 2000 or 2012 version of ASTM F977. On and from 1 April 2014, only baby walkers which meet the referenced sections of the 2012 version of ASTM F977 will be compliant with the mandatory standard.
Suppliers who intend to comply with the 2012 version of ASTM F977 should be aware of the following differences between the 2000 and 2012 versions of ASTM F977 which are referenced in the mandatory standard:
- further detail about testing the stability of baby walkers (clause 7.3 of ASTM F977-12)
- clarifying the positioning of the baby walker for the step tests (clause 7.6 of ASTM F977-12)
- changes in the labelling requirements for baby walkers with parking brakes (clause 8.2 of ASTM F977-12).
Contact details
ACCC Infocentre: 1300 302 502
Email: psa@accc.gov.au