According to the latest data of "Analysis Report on Indoor Air Quality Problems" released by Chezhi. com, from 2010 to August 2019, consumers complained about the odor inside the car for 9,300 times. From January to August this year alone, the number of related complaints reached 1,646 times. It is predicted that the number of complaints in the whole year will reach a record high.
"The lack of relevant control standards in the interior environment, lack of legal basis and lack of supervision have led to increasing air quality problems in the car." Become the consensus of experts. Recently, at the "Third March 15th Automobile Consumption Forum and Symposium on Promoting the Issuance of Compulsory Standards for Indoor Pollution" sponsored by china law society Consumer Law Research Association and co-organized by Chezhi. com, participants in drafting relevant standards for indoor environment, environmental experts, legal professionals, scholars and senior experts in the automobile industry had in-depth discussions on the existing problems of indoor air quality, the reasons for the delay in the introduction of compulsory standards, and how consumers should safeguard their rights and interests.
The smell inside the car has become one of the hot issues of automobile quality.
According to a folk statistic in 2017, there are more than 4,600 models on sale in China automobile market. Combined with the faster and faster iteration speed of models, there will be more models on sale at present. According to the data released by the Ministry of Public Security, as of June this year, the number of cars in China has reached 250 million.
With the rapid improvement of modernization, people’s dependence on vehicles has become increasingly obvious. In addition to homes and workplaces, vehicles have become one of the main places where human beings stay. On the other hand, in order to meet consumers’ requirements for automobile comfort, manufacturers constantly improve the structural design of automobile interiors, and use more new technologies, new materials and new processes, especially the extensive application of nonmetallic materials and adhesives, which leads to the accumulation of pollutants in automobiles and harms human health. With the continuous improvement of the public’s environmental awareness and self-protection awareness, the public has higher expectations and stricter requirements for the air quality in the car, which is closely related to human health. In recent years, the environmental problems in the car have attracted much attention.
The reporter noted that the car quality network data shows that the odor inside the car has become one of the top ten car quality hot issues from 2010 to August this year. Zhang Yue, director of the Automotive Quality Network Research Institute, even pointed out that consumers’ concern about the interior environment will reach its peak this year, which will be followed by advocating the elimination of pollution hazards to automobile enterprises with a "death-like attitude".
"vehicle air pollution’s problem, a recommended standard before, but there is no mandatory standard, so what’s the problem? After consumers encounter problems, there is a basis for unresolved disputes, and the recommendation standard can not be implemented. " According to Guangsheng Song, director of the National Indoor Interior Environment and Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, although some people in the industry paid attention to the indoor air quality in 2003, with the blowout development of the automobile market in previous years, the purpose of formulating the relevant standards for indoor air quality has changed from the initial prevention of shoddy automobile products to the stage of meeting consumers’ demands for the safe driving environment of automobile products.
"We call for and look forward to the introduction of relevant mandatory national standards as soon as possible to effectively strengthen consumer protection." Chen Jian, director of the legal and theoretical research department of the China Consumers Association, said that the right to safety is the first right of consumers. In recent years, consumers have paid more and more attention to the air quality in cars, and related consumer disputes are more prominent. It is suggested that starting from the protection of consumers’ safety rights, we should keep pace with the times to study automotive materials and formulate standard limits. In order to protect consumers’ rights, we should improve the detection methods of in-use vehicles and promote the convenience of identification. Starting from standardizing the use of materials, the filing system of environmental protection report for vehicle materials is established. It is hoped that enterprises in the industry will issue an indoor air quality test report while selling cars to protect consumers’ right to know and choose.
It is understood that after the implementation of the "Guide for Air Quality Assessment in Passenger Cars" (GB/T 27630-2011) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the products launched by vehicle manufacturers have improved to some extent through the monitoring of China Consumers Association, but the effect is limited. Around 2017, consumers’ concern about the air quality inside the car peaked again, which also shows that consumers are paying more and more attention to the possible violation of their safety rights caused by this hidden danger.
In-vehicle environmental detection is controversial, and it is difficult for consumers to defend their rights.
Heshan, president of china law society Consumer Law Research Association, said that as far as automobile products are concerned, in some cases of rights protection, there is a dispute about whether they are luxury goods or consumer goods. In this case, when consumers encounter vehicle air pollution, the detection resistance becomes greater. He believes that once consumers think that their rights and interests are damaged, they should still advocate that family cars are also consumer goods and use relevant laws to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
Specific to the identification and evaluation links and standards, Jian Chen frankly said that there are not many institutions with testing qualifications at present, and the testing costs are high, and some institutions do not issue testing reports to individuals, etc., which are all technical difficulties when consumers protect their rights. Another major factor affecting rights protection is how to prove the relationship between the car environment and the consumer’s illness. This requires relevant departments to carry out relevant epidemiological investigations and follow-up studies.
In fact, another important factor that makes it difficult for consumers to defend their rights is the lack of mandatory standards. It is understood that the Guide for Air Quality Assessment in Passenger Cars (GB/T 27630-2011) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Sampling and Determination Method of Volatile Organic Compounds and Aldehydes and Ketones in Cars (HJT 400-2007) issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration are authoritative testing standards and methods for evaluating air quality in cars. In the former, eight detection substances, including benzene, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, styrene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein, and their limit values are specified.
However, the former, as a recommended standard, cannot force all enterprises to provide qualified automobile products. In 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Air Quality in Passenger Cars" (draft for comments), and proposed that the recommended standard would be upgraded to a mandatory standard, and it is planned to be implemented on January 1, 2017, making it clear that all newly-finalized sales vehicles must meet the requirements of this standard. However, after two years, the mandatory standard has repeatedly broken its promise.
All kinds of gaps between consumers and access to in-vehicle air quality testing have made it difficult for consumers to take legal proceedings to protect their rights. "In more than a dozen judicial cases of air quality in cars I have studied, no consumer has won the lawsuit." Jiang Suhua, a lawyer of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, bluntly said that this is not to say that consumers can’t win this kind of lawsuit, but there are too many links involved, and a slight negligence may lead to a loss of one link.
In addition, another difficulty in indoor air quality detection lies in the diversity of pollutant sources. Zhang Jinliang, a researcher at china environmental science Research Institute, believes that the air pollution sources in cars can be basically divided into interior decoration and decoration. According to Zhang Yue, the direct pollution sources of indoor air quality are mainly the dashboard assembly, door trim panel, carpet, ceiling, automotive wiring harness and seat assembly. In addition to the accessories installed by consumers, the pollution sources may also come from the outside of the car and the substances emitted by the car.
Improving the air quality inside the car requires multi-party participation.
Jiang Jun, the propaganda director of the C-ECAP Management Center of China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd., pointed out that after testing more than 700 models on the market, the project team found that the proportion of models that can meet the relevant provisions in the Guide for Air Quality Evaluation in Passenger Cars (GB/T 27630-2011) is basically 50%, which means that half of the models still fail to meet the recommended standards, and there is still room for improvement in the overall industry level.
The reality is that some models with substandard air inside the car are still in circulation in the market. According to the research data of Gaode Map, taking Beijing as an example, each person spends 174 hours on commuting congestion every year. Aside from the proportion of public transport trips, it is certain that the time and the number of consumers staying in the car are increasing year by year, and the range of consumers affected by the environmental quality in the car is also expanding simultaneously.
So, what is the latest development of such a long-awaited mandatory standard?
According to Guangsheng Song, some indicators in the "Guidelines for the Evaluation of Air Quality in Passenger Cars (Draft for Comment)" are stricter, while others are relaxed. In order to improve the number of new energy vehicles, regulations on battery radiation have been added, but the timetable for upgrading to mandatory standards and implementing them is still unknown.
In this regard, Jiang Suhua believes that both the recommendation standard and the mandatory standard can be used as the basis for the judge’s judgment. This is not to say that the introduction of mandatory standards is not urgent, but compared with the time of introduction, from a lawyer’s point of view, it is more meaningful to modify the content of standards and involve the threshold of data.
For vehicle manufacturers, the unanimous view of the guests attending the meeting is that improving the air quality inside the vehicle should start from the source, which requires enterprises to respect consumers and reduce pollution sources in product definition, product design, supplier selection, manufacturing, transportation and sales. As Wu Gaohan, former deputy secretary-general of China Consumers Association, said, consumers in China have now entered the stage of developing and enjoying consumption. At this stage, consumers’ pursuit of a better life is unstoppable, and the pursuit of quality consumption is unstoppable. Health is the most important part of a better life. Without health, there is no better life, and without health, there is no quality consumption. (Legal Daily, all-media reporter Cai Yanhong)
