A majority of people say many consumer products are unsafe, making it difficult for them to decide which to buy, according to the result of an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted on May 21-22 on 1,251 people aged 18 and over of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country to gauge their confidence in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s logo and safety certification programme.
A majority of people, 71.78%, said that they usually look for the FDA's safety certification mark on consumers products before buying them; 27.98% said they don't bother; and 0.24% were uncertain or had no comment.
Asked about their confidence in the FDA's safety standards after seeing reports of seizures of products displaying a fake FDA safety registration number or fake FDA safety mark, a majority of the respondents, 56.12%, said they are confident because the FDA is long-established and fake FDA safety marks or registration numbers are caused by manufacturers, not the FDA. However, 42.21% said they are not confident, believing the FDA has not been strict in checking safety standards. Another 1.68% were uncertain or had no comment.
Asked how serious the problem of safety standards of consumer consumers products is, 25.90% said the problem is very serious, making it difficult for them to decide which to buy with confidence; 44.60% rather serious; 25.90% not very serious; 2.16% not serious at all; and 1.44% were uncertain or had no comment.
A majority, 65.71%, said use of celebrities or well-known personalities to advertise products partly leads them to decide to buy them; 32.93% said otherwise, saying their decision to buy products is based mainly on quality and satisfaction; and 1.36% were uncertain or had no comment.
When asked to suggest ways to protect consumers from unsafe producrts, 54.20% said more measures should be imposed to check safety standards both before and after getting FDA certification; 34.05% said penalties on violators of safety standards should be harsher; 33.89% said more state agencies should be assigned to provide consumer protection; 32.37% said stricter control of bogus claims in advertisements and the use of celebrities in advertising products should be imposed; and 27.10% said there should be more officials to check safety standards of products.