China sets standard for children's furniture

BEIJING - China's first mandatory national standard on the designing and making of children's furniture entered into effect on Wednesday.

To prevent potential harms to children aged between three to 14, the standard introduces a set of general technical requirements on the choice of materials and paints, placement of warning signs as well as other safety checklists.

It highlights several enhanced safety requirements than the standard applied to ordinary furniture.

Under the standard, sharp edges should be avoided for such furniture and no glass should be used for the parts that are below 1.6 meters from the base.

Compared with the general chemical limits for ordinary furniture, the standard of children's furniture also sets toy-degree requirements on the level of stibonium, arsenic, barium and selenium.

Wednesday also saw three other new rules go into effect, concerning protection of China's overseas workers, disabled people accessibility to public infrastructures and antibiotics use, respectively.

According to the new regulation, foreign labor service companies will each be required to create a bank account containing no less than 3 million yuan ($471,000) to be deposited in banks designated by authorities in order to cover potential risks for Chinese workers.

China also made the resolve to improve the accessibility of the disabled. Parking lot, commercial centers, living quarters, transportation facilities and other public infrastructure facilities must be accessible for disabled people, according to the regulation.

In addition, Chinese doctors will face tougher restrictions when prescribing antibiotics, while pharmacies are also required to tighten the control on the use of antibiotics under the new rule.