In many areas, the Corona crisis has led to absurd and dangerous offers of respirators, protective clothing, gloves, etc. to sometimes completely unsuspecting buyers. The large, unexpected demand caused by the Corona crisis has already led to supply bottlenecks for many occupational safety products for several weeks and months and thus to a limited availability of important protective equipment.
Corona: First there were fake respirators
One example is the hype about respirators at the beginning of the Corona crisis. The offer of FFP2 and FFP3 masks that do not comply with the CE standard EN 149 in any way was striking. Aggressively and mostly via the Internet, these fakes or mislabeled masks were offered, mostly by completely inexperienced "soldiers of fortune". The only goal: to make fraudulent profit out of the misery of the users.
We at AAV GmbH were made aware of examples where masks with felt-tip pens received the "certificate" as FFP2 or FFP3! Only the availability of uncertified DIY or everyday masks (we call them "spit protection") led to a relief in demand, and yet no real improvement in the fraudulent offers led.
It is a fact that these soldiers of fortune of all stripes have gone to work here with all kinds of fraudulent tricks, to the detriment of professional users and to the detriment of health. Look at their websites (if any): outside the industry, no expertise, no expertise.
Corona: Beware of non-certified examination gloves
Now to the current market situation of disposable gloves (synonymous with disposable gloves, examination gloves). Since the demand for these protective gloves has also increased extremely due to the Corona pandemic, all types of outright fraudsters and counterfeiters are also bustling around here.
The company AAV works almost exclusively with the Austrian company Semperit for disposable gloves. Every customer is 100% sure that they will receive what they pay for, with the original certificate. This can be requested if required.
Semperit disposable gloves and examination gloves are manufactured in Austria and Malaysia. We have not yet had a fake certificate in our hands for Semperit gloves. The situation is different with many other suppliers and manufacturers of disposable gloves. Warnings about fake certificates, for example, have already been issued several times by the manufacturer Top-Glove.
Semperit is a member of the Association of Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers (MARGMA) through its own Malaysian production company.
The MARGMA explicitly warns against fake certificates and all kinds of "fakes" and fraud. MARGMA members have produced 53 billion gloves in the first 3 months of this year, and yet production is not enough to meet the world's total demand. For this year, MARGMA expects to deliver 220 billion of the 330 billion needed. Since the total demand is greater than the supply, the door is open to counterfeit goods from other sources with fake certificates for fraudsters.
Identify forged certificates
A good source for identifying fake certificates is also the website of the European Safety Federation. If you receive a certificate from outside the EU, it is almost certainly suspicious and therefore possibly illegal. The incentive for fraudsters is too great as a result of the increased prices. Forged certificates can of course also affect all EU "notified bodies". No "notified body" is immune to such fraud. In case of suspicion, the only thing that helps here is to ask the certifier or the certified body itself.
The above statements suggest that disposable gloves with forged certificates pose a very high risk to the user. He should avoid falling for such fraud and endangering himself and his own employees by being vigilant.
Fake examination gloves are unsafe! Hands off!
Buy personal protective equipment only from trusted occupational safety dealers. This is about your health!