BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN keeping with international standards in the lowering of cost for electricity through the purchase of energy-efficient products, citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis will soon be seeing more electrical appliances with energy-saving tags attached to them on the local market.
This initiative was revealed to SKNVibes during an interview with the Director of the Bureau of Standards, Hiram Williams, who noted that the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is currently on an energy efficiency campaign; an organisation of which St. Kitts and Nevis is a member.
“It is really an energy efficiency campaign to help consumers bring down the cost of electricity which impacts on people in general. So, we have in place, which we are promoting, it’s really an OECS Project, whereby we are doing efficiency tests on the refrigerators and also tests on the CFL lamps,” he explained.
Williams explained that the Bureau is of the view that this would give consumers confidence in what they buy, since the energy-efficient products are “reliable”.
He noted that when it comes to products not deemed energy-efficient, they too have to be compliant with international standards.
“In the region, we have standards that speak to some electrical appliances. Currently, there are various amounts of standards of which the Federation is a participant,” the Director explained.
“One of the things we try to do here or try to promote in the Bureau is to be able to participate in some international organisations so that we can get access to standards which will benefit the country,” he added.
Williams however pointed out that the Bureau has not been able to get access to all the standards it would have liked to have, but it has a general idea of what they are.
He informed that “if there are any products or appliances that are coming to the country which we see as unsafe, not only through the Bureau of Standards but, in addition, the Consumer Affairs Department which has that responsibility to ensure that products are also safe and meet the requirements in terms of standards that would not endanger life of consumers, we would remove them from the shelves or retailers”.
The Bureau acts on information from the overseas markets as to what is wrong with the product and the Consumer Affairs will also do the same.
“We do get information! And in most cases these products are being used in other countries. We expect that we will get similar problems and we will act on this information. And it is the same thing with the Consumer Affairs and their regional bodies, whereby we share information.”
He declared that all products deemed not up to standard are henceforth returned or confiscated.
In highlighting a few standards, Williams said food products “must all have labelling to indicate what they have in terms of food contents, weight and manufacturer”.
He mentioned too that “some product labelling would require you to indicate directions on how it should be used, and in the case of pesticides, they must have on what the ingredients are specifically. They must also have on them direction in terms of how much should be used and things like that”.
Williams also said that “in terms of the quality of products, a lot of people need to understand that some are what we call voluntary, while in some other cases they are mandatory for the technical regulations where it will have an impact on people’s safety and health”.
He advised that consumers should be aware of all the necessary standards for products being manufactured locally and also those that are imported.
