Now that you’ve likely finished off the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, it’s time to really think about your sourcing priorities into the new year and beyond. What you choose can have serious ramifications, both for your clients’ safety and for the safety of workforces on the other side of the world.
We’ve talked here before about the dangers of knockoff phone chargers. A popular item in an industry driven nearly exclusively by price, the siren song of cheap or fake chargers can be almost too much to ignore. But for your clients’ sake, please do. The latest in a long line of investigations on defective chargers was recently published by Which? News in the UK. We’re discussing it again here to underline the importance, because dozens of dangerous products were found to be readily available on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, and Wish. Which? found a plethora of USB chargers, power banks, and travel adapters all ready to give you (or your customers) an electrical shock or perhaps even cause a fire. In an investigation of 35 chargers, more than 75 percent of them failed in testing, and several had holes big enough to attract small fingers.
More than half of the power banks tested, largely sold by brands unfamiliar to the Which? Staff, had serious electrical safety issues. Five of the 11 came with no thermal protection inside, with no way to monitor the temperature of the product as it charges. Others were badly soldered together, one stopped working after a short-circuit test, and another became damaged during the overcharge test. And one, the Trust Urban Primo 2,200mAh Powerbank, which was purchased from Amazon Marketplace, was so poorly manufactured it started to smoke and melt when charging.
As of this writing, Amazon has stopped selling the Trust Urban Primo, but promotional product versions are still available at AnyPromo.com, Motivators.com, DiscountMugs.com, and EverythingBranded.com, to name just a few. Online marketplaces make it easy for low quality and unsafe products to find their way into consumers’ homes, but it’s your responsibility to make sure they don’t make it to your clients and their customers. It’s also a great chance to raise your unit price—for the best reason of all—safety. Think your clients might need convincing? Share the Which? Article, or this one from EMC Technologies, or this from the Anit-Counterfeiting Group. There’s no shortage of information out there on the dangers of these knockoff, extremely poorly manufactured products. Getting it into your clients’ hands and making it top of mind for them as they make product sourcing decisions does everyone a solid.
As a final point, I’d like to take a minute to make sure you’re aware of the human rights violations in the name of electronics and appliances you may be sourcing for your clients—and it has to do with mica. In Africa, there is an army largely comprised of women and children working excruciatingly long hours under often horrific conditions in order to mine mica. Mica is the name given to a group of silicate materials that can be ground into powder and it’s often used in beauty products. In fact, if it shimmers, it’s quite likely that any cosmetic product you’re using has mica in it. In addition to makeup, mica is used as filler in cement and asphalt, as insulation material in electric cables, and is a common ingredient in paint.
Mica is also a superior insulator, which explains why it has found its way to America in electronics and automotive products—it can transmit electric force without overheating, even under extreme temperatures. According to the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, in 2016 Madagascar overtook India as the biggest global exporter of sheet mica, the grade used extensively in the electronics and automotive industries,
Mica mining in India has generated some controversy in recent years for its use of child labor and unsafe conditions, but without the level of attention it takes to make a difference. NBC News traveled more than 400 miles through Madagascar’s remote south and witnessed scores of children working in unregulated and poorly-ventilated mica pits, as well as in processing centers, and alongside other family members. A review of hundreds of shipping records revealed how the vast majority of mica mined in Madagascar goes first to China, and then ends up as component parts in American products, like products you are most likely sourcing—audio speakers and batteries. NBC interviews with executives in Madagascar’s mica industry showed that the prevalence of child labor is well known but largely dismissed as a byproduct of extreme poverty. Taken together, a picture emerges of children as young as four performing long hours of labor-intensive work, in often dangerous conditions to mine a mineral whose price will be inflated nearly 500 times before it leaves the country.
With the supply chain that runs from Africa to China, and ultimately to the U.S., being anything but transparent, what can you do with your sourcing to help stop child labor? It’s not going to be easy. Exporters in Madagascar, manufacturers in China, and large consumer-facing companies like Panasonic all deny knowledge of the atrocities that are being carried out in the mines. Panasonic told NBC its supply chain guidelines “expressly prohibits the use of child labor and require suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect. Breaches of our supply policy are not tolerated. Panasonic supports human rights, safe working environments and environmental consciousness.”
One thing not to do, surprisingly, is a mass boycott of the companies that use mica mined by Madagascar children, assuming you figure out what the offending companies are. “If the consumers stop buying, they don't have anything to eat,” one expert said. “The children are going to literally die. So, what we want is for the companies to take responsibility to find where the materials are sourced, and make sure they are sourced in a responsible manner.” A tall task indeed.
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Connect with Jeff on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.