Aldi tap, Easy Home spiral spring mixer, may have beat certification using a ‘golden child’
THE Aldi tap that contaminated water with 15 times the safe level of lead may have been certified using a ‘golden child’ model made solely for getting approval.
Retail
Don't miss out on the headlines from Retail. Followed categories will be added to My News.
EXCLUSIVE
THE supplier of the Aldi tap found to contaminate water with 15 times the allowable level of lead may have escaped scrutiny under Australia’s certification system through the use of a “golden child” prototype for the approval process.
A new regime starting next month will make it harder for manufacturers to win approval, according to Federal Government body that created it.
But industry insiders say it could make evasion even easier. They say that at the moment, a manufacturer wanting to supply plumbing products including taps would have undergo a factory inspection annually by an approved certifier. But from next month factory inspections will be reduced to once every five years. And a product could be supplied for up to 12 months before the first factory inspection.
The insiders argue the new regime will lead to more substitution, pointing to imported gas cookers and heaters for which inspections are less frequent than plumbing products.
“That’s where the term ‘golden child’ comes from — the gas side, not the water side,” said Paul Bonsak, managing director of Australia’s second-largest certification company IAPMO R&T Oceana.
RELATED: Customers warned to beware of cheap Aldi tap
Currently IAPMO’s certification process includes a yearly factory audit and metallurgy check.
“Because certifiers keep going back every year it’s difficult to make changes without it being picked up,” Mr Bonsak said. “But as of the 1st of August, factory testing will only be undertaken every five years.”
Master Plumbers Australia national secretary Penny Cornah wrote to the Federal Government yesterday to oppose the reforms.
“It’s crazy,” Ms Cornah said. “There is no substitute for an on-site audit.”
However, the government’s Australian Building Codes Board said the new certification scheme was tighter and more sophisticated. While factory inspections would only be required every five years, warehouse or market samples would be tested annually, an ABCB spokesman said.
It argues the existing rules can be exploited. And it is not alone.
“You can go to any factory and be shown the perfect product being made,” CertMark International director John Thorpe said.
The Aldi tap may yet prove that claim to be true.
It was IAPMO that certified the Easy Home “Spiral Spring Mixer”, finding it gave off just one-ninth of the maximum allowable amount of the toxic metal — at odds with the high results in subsequent tests by Queensland Health’s Forensic and Scientific Services unit.
Several sources have told News Corp Australia they suspect product substitution to be the explanation.
“Maybe they (the manufacturer) gave the good tap to IAPMO to test and sold all the other ones,” Ms Cornah said.
The manufacturer, Zhejiang Keen Faucet Co, did not respond to questions.
Mr Bonsak said factory inspections were done in the first quarter of a calendar year. Aldi sold the tap in June this year and last.
“Whether or not someone has made a change to the manufacturing process in the short term, I don’t know,” Mr Bonsak said.
Meanwhile Aldi has broken its silence over the lead scare, saying it will offer refunds but not undertake a recall at this stage.
It would not say whether it was investigating the possibility of substitution.
Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said even if a consumer had suffered lead poisoning “as a result of drinking water from a dodgy tap and the company notified the regulator, there is currently no requirement for the public to be informed about the incident. The reports a company makes about injuries and deaths stay private”.
Aldi Australia claims it conducted its own independent testing on the tap and believed it complied with Australian standards before it was offered for sale in stores.
Been affected? Contact our reporter
Follow his work on Facebook or Twitter
Originally published as Aldi tap, Easy Home spiral spring mixer, may have beat certification using a ‘golden child’
‘I don’t apologise’: Bunnings boss responds
Bunnings has come under fire in an ABC documentary, but the company’s top boss says he makes no apologies for running a profitable business.
Brutal text sent to staff as company collapses
A major family business has been forced to close after 30 years, with staff learning they no longer had jobs during an all-staff meeting.