Safety examination of lighting products, including light sources, power controllers, lighting fixtures and lighting control systems, is a top concern to consumers.

Safety is a much more important issue than energy conservation, proper light brightness and even ease on eyes, given the fact that lighting products are electrical appliances that can cause fire or electric shocks if they are in poor quality.

To ensure consumer safety, most countries enact strict safety regulations governing electrical appliances. CNS of Taiwan, GB of mainland China, ANSI of the United States and IEC of European Union are a few of the major lighting safety regulations enforced around the world.

These regulations usually demand that regulated products meet certain conditions and specifications before they get a stamp of approval.

The UL standard was drawn up by laboratories run by some U.S. insurance firms and is widely recognized by consumers around the world for its credibility. This has made the UL standard an important benchmark for lighting safety.

In Taiwan, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) enacted a national standard for examining imported lighting products. All imported products that are covered by the standard must pass an examination process and be certified before entering the Taiwan market.

In mainland China, the China Compulsory Certification (3C), has replaced Great Wall (CCEE) Mark as the standard for imported lighting products.

In the past, Taiwan's government examination systems stressed spot checks at factories. Today, lighting manufacturers can begin selling their products after they pass examinations conducted by government-licensed agencies according to national or international standards. Government agencies now only do spot checks on products already on the market.

Meeting International Standards
Governments throughout the world are pulling out all the stops to bring their standards into conformance with international standards in order to streamline the examination process and reduce the time and cost of certification. Taiwan and mainland China are among the countries working to bring their standards into line with the European Union's International Electromechnical Committee (IEC) standard.

In Taiwan, lighting products including light sources, ballasts and lighting fixtures are required to undergo tests for safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electrical qualities. In addition, most of these products must pass energy-efficiency tests, whose standards were set by MOEA's Bureau of Energy.

However, many lighting manufacturers on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have skipped the required tests either to save money or because they know their products aren't up to standard. They often get away with it because of weak examination at the factory and market level. This hurts honest producers of quality products, who may be tainted by this reputation and therefore blacklisted by buyers. Consumers also suffer from the inconsistent quality.

Ironically, manufacturers in Taiwan and the mainland go to great lengths to certify the quality of their products in overseas markets even as they try to avoid examinations at home. People wonder why there are so many uncertified lighting products on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The answer is that the two governments are too understaffed with inspectors to thoroughly police producers, allowing many manufacturers to slip through the cracks. In many countries, suppliers caught selling substandard products are obligated to recall their products and pay fines that are often big enough to send them into bankruptcy. That's a cruel fact. But it protects the dignity of national certification systems, the credibility of government examination, market order and consumer interests.

In the past, Taiwan's government agencies simply conducted factory spot checks because of limited human and financial resources, leaving the non-profit Consumer's Foundation the job to keep an eye on products on the market. It was a poor arrangement because the government agencies had punishment authority without credibility whereas the foundation had credibility without punishment authority. Accordingly, proper examination and penalization systems are as important as the standards themselves when it comes to maintaining market order.

Producers face an additional hurdle in Taiwan and mainland China since both markets require lighting products to undergo separate examination processes regardless of prior tests and approvals. Also, the inconsistent quality of test laboratories in the two sides often results in different outcomes, greatly annoying suppliers who eventually have to retake expensive tests. A sound approval system requires quality and credible laboratories, with cross-comparison of test results among different labs. Otherwise, consumers may just choose blindly from among untested products. Unfortunately, labs in Taiwan rare cross-compare their test results, putting a big damper on the local certification system.

Enforcing Compliance
In industrially advanced countries, governments usually impose heavy penalties on suppliers who fail to meet certification standards, leading firms to insure themselves against such fines. It was against this background that Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Inc. was established. Many insurance firms co-founded the laboratory to examine products from suppliers and sort out their insurance rates in accordance with their safety classifications.

In Taiwan, compensation systems can be carried out through the Consumer Protection Law. Taiwan's major enterprises have insured their products against incidents in order to safeguard corporate profiles. Some industries carry out compensation systems through industry associations. The Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association and Gas Appliance Manufacturers' Association of Taiwan are two typical examples. In the mainland, such compensation system is still immature.

Taiwan's complicated examination system is another reason local lighting manufacturers would rather avoid the examination process altogether. Only one test is required for products using identical light sources, control units and components. Products with electronic ballasts need to undergo a ballast electromagnetic interference (EMI) test. Yet lamps equipped with EMI-approved ballasts still need to undergo EMI tests, raising the cost to producers and dampening their enthusiasm to have their products tested. Some lighting manufacturers technically claim on product instructions that their products use incandescent bulbs, which do not use ballasts, even though they are designed for use in compact fluorescent lamps, which are equipped with electronic ballasts.

In light of suppliers' irresponsible actions, the government of Taiwan should overhaul the current examination systems in cooperation with academic institutes and consumer organizations. The government should consider consumer safety as important as energy conservation and environmental protection. The island's lighting industry has always lacked government's supports and is overlooked by academic organizations, putting it in a very disadvantageous position. For the future of Taiwan' s lighting industry, government and the manufacturers should pay attention to the following points:

1: Government lighting-industry regulators should draw up a more comprehensive energy policy that includes not only energy conservation and lighting issues but also ease-on-eyes issues, while also commending high-quality lighting manufacturers.

2: Energy-conservation policy must be devised with incentives that can help encourage the development of energy-efficient lighting designs. The policy should consider subsidizing energy-efficient products and set timetables for the phasing out of power-wasting products. Also, the policy should call for the thorough examination of products on the market.

3: To maintain market order, compulsory standard codes, complete examinations and a fair punishment system are needed for lighting products, including electronic ballasts, lamp tubes and lighting fixtures.

4: An energy-efficient and environmental protection certification system like the one applied to lighting sources should be drafted for lighting fixtures and light designs.

5: Lighting industries on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait need to integrate their national standards. The mainland is developing its standards around IEC and France's CIE while Taiwan is harmonizing with IEC and Japan's JIS.

6: Lighting industries on the two sides should develop quality and efficient products and allow industry associations to play a major role in setting up a responsibility insurance system and safety approval system.