Excellent news from the European Commission - they are at long last developing Safety Standards specifically for 'suspended baby beds' as well as looking at other items including cot mattresses and bumpers, duvets and sleeping bags.

We have long lobbied for more thorough safety testing and are delighted to see this come through.

A little background on safety testing in Europe:

All products made available for sale must be deemed safe.  Products that have been around for a long time such as car seats have specific safety standards developed for them.  

Some products are new to the market and may not fall into a category that already exists.  This is what happens with baby hammocks.  They can't be tested to a crib standard for example as the crib standard includes tests for solid sides as well as other items which are not part of a hammock.

So how do we ensure it is a safe product?

Any product that does not have a clear category comes under the authority of the European General Product Safety Directive.

To comply with this and ensure a product is safe the manufacturer takes it to one of the accredited testing companies for them to study and evaluate.  They look at the product and take the relevant parts from any existing Safety Standards and test to those.  So although a specific standard is not tested to, the safety of the product is fully and rigorously tested.

Safety is a priority for Miyo.  We are parents and we are making products for parents and we take our responsibilities very seriously.

In the UK there are two 'giants' of the product testing world.  Both have around 1,000 offices worldwide and each employ over 20,000 people.  

We took our products to one of these and had them evaluate and test it.  It passed.  By doing this we had fulfilled the requirements but we then took it to the second company and said 'here's the report from the first company, what else could we test to?'

They suggested a few more quite minor tests.  Again we passed.

I do not know how long it will take for the new safety standards to come into force but this is an excellent step in the right direction and will hopefully prevent a repeat of the Amby tragedy.  

How does this affect you as a parent?

From a legal point of view, all products on sale in Europe must be safe, the standards will simply formalise the process of evaluation and testing.  I have been involved with hammocks for nearly 6 years and have seen many designs, some of which I would never allow my child in as they are not fully thought out.  

It is impossible to foresee every potential issue but the standards are written by experts who are objective and can evaluate more professionally than a lay-person reading a website so although the new standards are not in force yet, they might give you a checklist to run through your mind when contemplating buying a hammock.  If you would like to read through it, I've attached it to this thread.