British Safety Standard

dwi

dwi

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I was quite shocked today to go into a large, well known, sports retailer and find that they appeared to be selling hats and body protectors that did not appear to meet British standards. Am I right in this or did I read the labels wrong?

If I am right then what is the point of having a British safety standard if you can sell goods that don't meet it? I would imagine that lots of parents would go in there to buy things for their children when they are first starting out and it seems irresponsible that children could be put at risk like this.

Is this something the BHS campaign on? If I am right then I really don't think this should be allowed. If I'm wrong and slinging unfounded accusations then admin I'm sorry, please delete this post.
 
There are other safety standards than the kitemark we are all used to seeing and these are also stringently tested. Personally EN1384 does for me and I wouldn't reject an equestrian item simply because it didn't have a BS mark, not all imported goods would have been submitted for this standard.

If there are no safety standards at all, that would be a different matter, of course.
 
What safety standards did they have, if any? I believe that a lot of riding schools won't allow you to use a hat that doesn't have the british kitemark on it, so buying such hats would be a waste of money (provided that hats are checked). Not having the kitemark doesn't necessarily mean that its of any lesser quality, it just means that it has yet to be tested and approved.
 
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There are other safety standards than the kitemark we are all used to seeing and these are also stringently tested. Personally EN1384 does for me and I wouldn't reject an equestrian item simply because it didn't have a BS mark, not all imported goods would have been submitted for this standard.

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You aren't allowed to compete with this standard though are you? The hat looked like a cycle helmet on the inside, didn't look nearly as sturdy as my riding hat
 
On the same subject, one of the most popular hats in recent years, the GPA, didn't have a kitemark, although it did have European safety standards, I could be out of date and they may have submitted it to the BSI in the last year...but it just goes to show that a good and popular product will not necessarily have the kitemark
 
Then why do we have different standards? Which is better? I would have thought that the EU could sort this sort of thing out to prevent confusion. How can people tell which to buy for their children? (on the plus side if these hats are just as good they were very cheap and would do for a spare)
 
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You aren't allowed to compete with this standard though are you? The hat looked like a cycle helmet on the inside, didn't look nearly as sturdy as my riding hat

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Yes you are, not for Pony Club, but yes for nearly all other discliplines, as long as there is A safety standard on a label in the hat you will be allowed to use it for nearly everything else. There is a great deal to commend the work done by the BSI, but their success has almost brainwashed the british public into beliving there are no other safety standards.
LAS helmets, for example, are very popular with jockeys and event riders in the cross country phase, and so they should be, they are very good hats - but they are Italian and have EN markings, but no kitemark
 
The cycling-type helmets usually carry a higher safety rating than the conventional looking ones because their soft polystyrene gives higher impact resistance. They are single use though (1 smack and chuck them).
 
If you drop/smack any hat you should throw it away.

I don't think either standard is better than the other. But your correct that some competitions/riding schools insists on the British kitemark.


I used to work in a tack shop, and when the GPA lookalike hats started coming out we stocked one from a popular manufacturer. We (our mistake) did not check it was kitemarked. We sold LOADS of them and then suddenly they all started coming back because PC etc had noticed and refused to let people wear them. We refunded because the tack shop owner is lovely and felt guilty, but when we contacted the manufacturer they got really arsey and said we were making a mountain out of a mole hill and they hadn't had complaints from anyone else. We stopped stocking their hats over it. 18 months later they had them kitemarked.... Hmmmm..... Sure we were the only ones to complain...... Sure! Hands up we should have checked though, although equally you could say the customers should check. I don't know. It was a lesson learnt!!

Sorry, that was a bit random!
 
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