Social activists asked the Cabinet to maintain federal control over playgrounds and attractions, including in shopping centers. The fact is that the government’s amendments to the bill on state supervision, introduced to the State Duma, abolish Rosstandart’s control over such facilities. But without this supervision, low-quality and dangerous products may appear on the market, which will lead to an increase in the risk of childhood injuries, according to a letter from the Council of Mothers public organization to the head of government Mikhail Mishustin (Izvestia has a copy of the document). The Russian Association of Specialized Machinery and Equipment also addressed the Prime Minister with a similar request regarding special equipment, including communal ones.
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The All-Russian Public Organization for Support of Motherhood and Childhood “Council of Mothers” asked to maintain Rosstandart’s control over children’s attractions and playgrounds. The organization sent its initiative to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
The bill “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Connection with the Adoption of the Federal Law” On State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control in the Russian Federation “must necessarily provide for the implementation by Rosstandart of state control over such types of supervised products, emphasized in the letter to the” Council of Mothers ” …
The government submitted the draft law to the State Duma. The amendments are needed so that the executive authorities at the regional and federal levels clearly understand the boundaries of their powers, Yuri Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions, told Izvestia.
Under this bill, Rosstandart’s state supervision is terminated not only for playgrounds and attractions, but also for other products, including special equipment, road construction, communal machinery, agricultural machinery and so on, the general director of the Russian Association of Specialized Machinery and Equipment (Rosspetsmash ») Vyacheslav Pronin.
– Compulsory product certification remains, but upon receipt of a certificate, manufacturers can show one sample. And then to release into circulation the one that does not meet the safety indicators – to reduce its cost, – said Vyacheslav Pronin.
The control and supervisory function of Rosstandart is that the service can, without any warning, come to the enterprise or the dealer, take any product sample, conduct its examination and, in case of unsatisfactory results, withdraw the quality certificate, said Vyacheslav Pronin.
Now it is assumed that only certification will remain, and for special equipment – technical inspection (Gostekhnadzor is responsible for it), during which it is impossible to identify safety problems, he said. For example, whether the strength of the cabin is sufficient, whether it can withstand the fall of a slab at a construction site, how well the brushes are made in communal equipment – whether they will suddenly fly out in passers-by, the expert gave an example.
The Association also sent a request to the Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, to leave the functions of state supervision over special equipment to Rosstandart. Izvestia got acquainted with a copy of the document.
The letters were received by the RF government apparatus and sent to the Ministry of Economic Development for consideration in accordance with the established procedure, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers told Izvestia. Rosstandart conducts and plans to carry out supervisory measures, guided by the tasks set by the government and in accordance with the law, the federal service told Izvestia.
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According to the technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union “On the safety of equipment for children’s playgrounds” (TR EAEU 042/2017), mandatory supervision of playgrounds and attractions should be established in the countries of the organization, Chairman of the Technical Committee 455 “Safety of Playgrounds” Maxim Gvalia told Izvestia …
– For us, as for the parent community, it was clear that there is Rosstandart, to which you can turn to with the problems of playgrounds. But now he will not be, the prosecutor’s office will remain, which conducts checks after the trauma, ”said the chairman of the“ Council of Mothers ”Tatiana Butskaya.
The Union of Fathers public organization shares concern over plans to reduce government control.
– Children’s equipment is purchased in large quantities for the implementation of the federal project “Comfortable Urban Environment”, however, no money is provided for the operation and repair of play equipment. Therefore, it is especially important to strengthen control at the stage of production and procurement, this should be done in Rosstandart, – said Pavel Sklyanchuk, a member of the Presidium of the Union of Fathers.
The Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia that the attractions are subject to regional state supervision in the field of technical condition and operation of self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment. And control over the correct operation of children’s playgrounds (which are the object of TR EAEU 042/2017), as well as their maintenance, will be carried out at the municipal level as part of control in the field of improvement, the department said.
The draft law does not provide for a separate single type of control (supervision) in relation to technical regulations, while the assessment of compliance with the requirements of technical regulations will be carried out within the framework of certain types of federal and regional control, the Ministry of Economic Development added.
So far, the number of injuries sustained in playgrounds, including new ones, continues to grow, said Alexei Dmitroshkin, director of the Our Dvor plant. This is due to insufficient control over the certification of children’s outdoor play equipment, he believes.
“It is imperative to maintain state supervision over the turnover of products related to the health and life of children, to tighten control in the field of certification, as well as by manufacturers and importers of children’s outdoor play equipment,” said Alexey Dmitroshkin.
In addition, to solve the problem of injury in playgrounds, it is advisable to introduce – following the example of Western countries – an inspection institute, says Natalya Zinchenko, an expert at the Ministry of Construction Commission on the development of public areas improvement, a leading expert on the safety of equipment for playgrounds and sports grounds. It involves regular inspections of existing sites, she explained.
Control over playgrounds should really be transferred to municipalities, since climatic and geographic conditions can be very different in the regions, says Alexey Perepelkin, head of the analytics department at BMS Law Firm. For example, identical sites in the southern areas can serve several years without major repairs, and in the northern ones they can become unusable for the second season, he explained.
Municipalities, taking into account their understanding of the state of a particular object, will be able to quickly identify and solve problems with playgrounds, the Ministry of Economic Development noted. This will increase the speed of making management decisions, they added.