Abstract:

Textiles and clothing belong to the most frequently reported category of products in the European market posing a serious risk to consumer health. To find out the reasons of this problem, an analysis of RAPEX system data covering 15 years of its operation was carried out. The purpose of this analysis was to identify the sources of dangerous products and the main threats posed by them. The problem is discussed in the two parts of the paper. In the first the authors paid attention to changes in legal requirements introduced not only within but also beyond the EU market, and analysed such variables as the activity of European countries in detecting hazards and countries of origin of dangerous products. In the second part, the authors characterised the main threats posed by textiles and analysed notifications, mainly in terms of the nature of the risk.