MILLIONS of uncertified PPE items may have been sold to unwitting Brits who could now be using unsafe protective kit.
Thousands of British companies responded to the Government’s Covid-19 call to beat other nations to a diminishing supply of PPE, often operating in markets they were not used to.
It is now feared many were unaware of the import processes that must be adhered to, and large numbers of PPE items bearing the CE protections symbol were flogged to UK businesses without having undergone the necessary checks.
The items were then sold on to commercial customers – with estimates suggesting the number of total items circulating in the UK could run into the millions.
Last month the European Safety Federation (E.S.F.) – a respected organisation which represents PPE manufacturers – warned that the situation was dangerously unclear for companies who are inexperienced in the procurement of PPE.
It noted that complex and vague CE marking processes allow EU testing facilities to issue safety certificates for PPE products, despite not being officially recognised in law to do so.
This, they suggest, has misled PPE procurement ‘newcomers’ into believing they are buying CE-compliant products, when the certificates issued are in fact worthless.
And they revealed they had been overwhelmed with enquiries from businesses worried about the veracity of their PPE CE mark certification.
The E.S.F. admitted: “We have the impression that manufacturers outside the EU (and probably even ‘newcomers’ and importers in the EU) are not entirely familiar with the EU Legislation on PPE and thus believe that by paying for the ‘certificate’ from such an organisation, they are fully in compliance with the EU legislation.
“And most likely, also on the side of the customers (including health authorities), the knowledge about the exact requirements of the EU legislation is lacking and thus they judge those documents as accurate.”
PestFix, a Sussex-based public health supply firm, was one of many companies around Europe who supplied PPE face masks they believed were CE certified, but later turned out to not be.
PestFix Chief Executive Dan England said: “We have discovered that certain PPE face masks we have supplied to our commercial and private clients had a compliance issue, for which we unreservedly apologise.
“We are liaising with the relevant regulators and are conducting a thorough investigation, including contacting every affected customer.”
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https://covidnineteen.wiki/united-kingdom/families-are-being-sent-up-to-420-per-child-to-help-buy-food-while-schools-are-closed-in-pandemic/