As the weather hopefully warms up again soon, I’m sure that many of you will be likely to pay Felixstowe a visit over the coming weeks and months. Whilst the seaside town is known for its fish and chips, arcades and shingled shoreline, you may not be aware that it is also home to Britain’s biggest and busiest shipping container port, which welcomes approximately 2,000 ships per year.
Since it opened in 1967, the Port of Felixstowe has continued to grow and now employs 2,500 people, who help handle the millions of container units passing through. These contain goods which originate from, or are destined for, one of over 700 ports around the world, from far flung places such as Singapore, to across the channel at Calais. A variety of products are transported in this way including toys, cosmetics, bicycles and electrical equipment – meaning that you probably have items in your home which have entered the country via Felixstowe.
Although the majority of these goods will be legitimate, this sadly isn’t always the case. Fortunately for consumers, Suffolk Trading Standards’ Import Surveillance Team continues to operate from the Port of Felixstowe to find these dangerous items and stop them from making their way into the marketplace.
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting the team at the port to learn more about their important work and see some of the unsafe items detained already this year. Officers operate from one of the port’s examination warehouses, 70 Shed, where they examine containers identified by the Office for Product Safety and Standards as potentially carrying high-risk consumer products. As I entered the warehouse, I was met with items recently detained by the team, including hundreds of welders probably destined for online marketplaces. Whilst these may have seemed like a good deal for DIY enthusiasts, they did not meet electrical safety requirements and posed a risk of fire, explosion or electric shock due to the poor construction and design, which included a fuse modified with wire.
These weren’t the only dangerous electrical items shown to me during my visit, with poor plugs, faulty air fryers and lethal lights all due to be destroyed after being discovered by the team. Even more worrying was a host of unsafe LED anti-aging face masks confiscated by Trading Standards officers. Although I’ve not used one myself, I’m informed that these are taking the beauty industry by storm and have a price tag of hundreds of pounds. This makes it even more tempting for people to seek out a budget alternative but, having heard first-hand about the dangers of these masks, I can assure you that it isn’t worth the risk.
It’s not just electrical goods posing a danger to life, with the team often finding non-compliant toys that could cause death or serious injury to children and toddlers. I was absolutely appalled to learn of the number of dodgy dolls or cuddly toys that contain loose parts or unsecure battery compartments, which could easily lead to a child choking or swallowing harmful batteries. Thankfully for the UK’s families, these have been detained and destroyed before they can even go on sale.
There is no doubt that the efforts of the Import Surveillance Team have prevented fire, serious injury or even death by keeping dangerous goods out of our county. But your help is also needed with this. At a time of energy price increases and rising fuel costs, it can seem like a great idea to try to grab a bargain. However, no saving justifies the potential consequences of having an unsafe product in the home. It is crucial to only buy items from reputable retailers and remember that if a price looks too good to be true, there’s probably a reason why. Although you think you’re getting a good deal, you could end up paying for it with your life.
If you’re concerned that you may have purchased substandard goods, please contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 so that we can help you and other consumers.
And when you’re next at Felixstowe and spot a ship laden with cargo, I hope that it will serve as a reminder of the tireless work going on behind the scenes from Trading Standards to keep Suffolk, and the rest of the UK, safe from high-risk products.
