Are Substandard "Brittle Safety Helmets" Still Being Sold?

Safety helmets that expired nearly 20 years ago are still being openly marketed as "special offer products"; counterfeit goods are being openly peddled on online platforms, where safety helmet compliance certificates can be bought and sold with impunity; and even some manufacturers holding national industrial product production licenses are secretly churning out substandard safety helmets... During an investigative survey, reporters from ‘’Ban Yue Tan‘’ discovered that these "brittle safety helmets" pose a grave threat to workplace safety, reflecting how certain employers and helmet manufacturers—driven solely by profit—blatantly disregard the law and show utter indifference toward the fundamental rights and interests of workers.

Fully Aware of the Threat to "Head Safety," Yet Still Hawking Helmets with Falsely Affixed Certificates

When ‘’Ban Yue Tan‘’ reporters searched for "safety helmets" on a popular online shopping platform, the results pages were flooded with products priced under 10 yuan—or even under 5 yuan. Without exception, the product descriptions for all these helmets prominently featured the claim that they met "National Standards." The reporters selected a vendor specializing in labor protection supplies—one boasting over 200,000 completed orders—and placed an order for a single safety helmet. Upon receiving and opening the package, the reporters were immediately met with a pungent, acrid odor of plastic. When they applied firm pressure to the helmet's outer shell, they found that it dented instantly—"one press, one dent." Subsequently, the reporters dropped the helmet in a free fall from the height of a second story onto a concrete surface; after just three to five drops, the helmet developed visible cracks.

Moving from the online sphere to the physical world, the reporters visited a labor protection supplies market in a city in western China. They observed that safety helmets were categorized into distinct "tiers": those priced in the tens of yuan were of superior quality, featuring thick, sturdy shells; conversely, those priced at just a few yuan were clearly shoddy, mass-produced items. When the reporters asked whether these low-priced helmets met "National Standards," the vendors simply replied with the adage: "You get what you pay for."

A review of regulatory records revealed that market supervision authorities across the country frequently uncover non-compliant safety helmets during routine spot checks and inspections. In February of this year, the Market Supervision Bureau of Dongli District, Tianjin, conducted spot checks on 40 different types of consumer goods; the single batch of non-compliant products identified during this inspection turned out to be safety helmets. Similarly, the Market Supervision Bureau of Genhe City, Inner Mongolia, conducted random spot checks on six categories of labor protection products sold by six different distributors; two of these distributors were found to be selling substandard safety helmets. It has been revealed that some vendors "candidly" admit that the low-cost safety helmets they sell fail quality inspections. Although their own budget-priced products do not meet national standards, they affix certificates of conformity belonging to other compliant products—a practice they claim does not hinder sales or usage. But where do these certificates for "brittle-shell helmets" come from? A simple online search for "certificate of conformity" reveals that such certificates—covering a vast array of product types—are readily available for purchase.

Reporters discovered that by tracing these "brittle-shell helmets" back from the point of sale to the source of production, a pattern emerges: unscrupulous manufacturers, catering to "market demand," recycle waste materials to produce substandard helmets. When labeling product materials, they engage in semantic trickery—such as vaguely designating them as "fiberglass-type"—to mislead the public. Furthermore, a single production line is often used to manufacture both "compliant" and "non-compliant" products, which are then bundled and sold according to specific market needs.

Curbing the Ongoing "Embrittlement" of Safety Helmets

The proliferation of "brittle-shell helmets" demonstrates a profound disregard for the critical issue of workers' head safety; it demands intensified, multi-stakeholder regulatory oversight and severe punitive action. Yao Hua argues that, to address the chaos surrounding these defective helmets, an "industry exclusion" system should be implemented to raise the cost of non-compliance. Additionally, the management of occupational safety equipment should be integrated into corporate safety credit evaluation systems to establish a sustainable, long-term mechanism for accountability.

"Market regulatory authorities must not only rigorously investigate unlicensed manufacturing activities but also maintain strict oversight of enterprises that already hold production licenses. They should conduct periodic, unannounced inspections to prevent substandard helmets from leaving the factory at the very source," stated the head of the Product Quality and Safety Supervision Division at the Nanning Administration for Market Regulation in Guangxi. He added that the administration intends to further intensify supervisory spot checks and targeted enforcement campaigns within the distribution sector. These efforts will focus specifically on construction material markets, wholesale and retail hubs, and occupational safety supply stores located in urban-rural fringe areas, aiming to severely crack down on the sale of substandard helmets while simultaneously reinforcing the primary responsibilities of e-commerce platforms and regulating online trading practices.

Enhancing the quality and sophistication of daily regulatory oversight within the sales sector constitutes a powerful strategy to ensure that these "brittle-shell helmets" have nowhere left to hide. Li Jia, Deputy Director of the Hezhou Administration for Market Regulation, stated: "Hezhou’s market regulatory authorities are actively guiding vendors and business operators to establish and refine their incoming inspection systems, strictly prohibiting the sale of safety helmets that lack proper certification or proof of compliance. Concurrently, we are conducting quality supervision spot checks—regularly performing random sampling and testing of safety helmets currently in circulation—and promptly publishing the results. Non-compliant products are investigated and penalized in accordance with the law, with efforts made to trace their origins and distribution channels."

Some experts have suggested establishing a "One Helmet, One Code" traceability system, utilizing QR codes to record comprehensive information spanning the entire lifecycle of a helmet—from production and distribution to actual use. Additionally, they recommend encouraging the involvement of independent third-party testing agencies to regularly publish the results of their spot checks.