Guangzhou Textbook Odor Preliminary Findings Point to Excess Sealing Oil; Batch Replacement Due by Sept 7

Several parents in Guangzhou have recently complained that newly distributed English textbooks for primary school Grades 3 and 4 give off a noticeable odor.

Some families, bothered by the smell, hung the books in ventilated areas at home to air them out.

On September 4, the Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau got in touch with the publisher, Educational Science Publishing House, and the distributor, Guangzhou Xinhua Bookstore, to address the issue without delay.

A preliminary assessment indicates that the odor came from the printing and packaging of the textbooks. During printing, an operational error caused an excessive amount of sealing oil to be applied, resulting in a stronger smell.

The publisher and the printing plant committed that, for the entire batch of Grade 3 and Grade 4 primary school English textbooks,

all copies would be replaced first and then collected.

At present, some schools have started the replacement today,

and every school is scheduled to finish replacement by September 7,

in order to minimize disruption for teachers and students. Meanwhile, the publisher urgently coordinated with the Guangdong Education Cloud platform to release the original digital textbooks at the same time, helping teachers prepare lessons and students preview.

According to a responsible person from the Educational Science Publishing House, the textbooks were printed by Guangzhou Suicai Printing Co., Ltd., which holds green printing qualifications,

and the ink used for this batch meets environmental protection standards.

The publisher immediately took samples from the same batch produced by Guangzhou Suicai Printing Co., Ltd. (Grade 3, Volume 1: 1st edition August 2012, 10th printing June 2021; Grade 4, Volume 1: 1st edition July 2013, 9th printing June 2021) and sent them to an authoritative quality supervision and testing institution. The conclusion was that “the test results of all items meet the requirements of Clause 5.2 of Standard HJ2503-2011 (Technical Requirements for Environmental Labeling Products—Printing, Part 1: Lithographic Printing).”

The Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau responded:

the textbook samples met the requirements after testing.

In response, the Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau said last night (September 3) that it had immediately learned of some parents’ reports about the odor in the Grade 3 and Grade 4 primary school English textbooks. This set is a national curriculum standard primary school English textbook approved by the Ministry of Education and is used by primary school students in Guangzhou. Procurement and distribution are organized uniformly by the provincial Xinhua Bookstore, while printing is organized by the Educational Science Publishing House, which is directly under the Ministry of Education, through relevant printing plants.

The Guangzhou Municipal Education Bureau stated that, after verifying with the publisher, this set of textbooks is currently selected only by Guangzhou. Samples have been sent to Beijing for testing, the test report has been issued and meets the requirements, and the publisher and distributor have been contacted to handle the matter promptly.

——This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378194.html