EU research projects to improve consumer protection and product quality control
The European Union's Standards, Measurement and Testing (SMT) research programme is to support some 23 projects aimed at improving consumer protection and product quality control. The projects have been selected following the fifth call for proposals launched by the programme in December 1996 (OJ No S 244 of 17.12.1996 p. 56). The projects aim to address specific measurement and testing problems highlighted by the European standardization organizations (CEN - European Committee for Standardization, CENELEC - European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization, ETSI - European Telecommunications Standardization Institute) or the Commission. The Community will provide a total of ECU 10 million in funding for these projects. The new projects bring to 64 the number of projects supported by the programme in this area, with total funding so far amounting to ECU 28 million. Examples of the projects selected are: - ANDISTAND: Investigating how to guarantee the effectiveness of domestic antiseptics and disinfectants; - Development of testing methods to allow the replacement of volatile organic compounds in dry cleaning; - SIMTEST: Development of new tests for automatic control systems for air conditioning and heating of large buildings; - BAMBI: Development of testing methods to assess the effectiveness of bathing rings and swimming aids for babies and children.