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Toys and Chemical Safety
ChemicalSafetyFacts.org
The U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and leading retail and toy industry groups
have joined forces to
promote toy safety and help parents make safe choices for their kids.
Still, many
parents might not be aware of key facts on the chemical safety of toys and how
toys are regulated.
Many parents may not know that federal agencies have regulated toy
safety for decades.
The Consumer
Safety Commission was created back in 1972 to protect the public from
unreasonable risks in the use of consumer products.
A number of
product safety recalls in 2007 related to lead found in imported children’s
toys directly resulted in important, regulatory changes, including passage of
the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement
Act (CPSIA) in 2008 and the EU’s Directive on the Safety of
Toys, issued in 2009.
Because of these
regulatory updates in toy safety, toys available on the market today are
generally safer than those manufactured as recently as 10 years ago.
Here’s what you need to know about chemicals and toy safety…
· U.S. toymakers must follow a set of mandatory safety rules and
regulations under the Consumer Product Safety Act and the CPSIA, including the
CPSC’s adoption of a slightly modified version of ASTM
F963 – Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety.
ASTMF963 includes test methods and requirements related to
chemical and material safety.
The toy industry also continually reviews this
standard as well as additional, voluntary standards to keep pace with new child
development research, medical and toy-related incident data, risk assessment
techniques, science and manufacturing innovations.
· CPSC requires children’s products to
be certified in compliance with the law.
This means testing by CPSC-approved, third-party labs, which
analyze toys and other products, determine whether certain chemicals are
present in hazardous amounts and if relevant safety regulations are met.
· If a toy manufacturing company changes a toy’s components – for
example, re-designs a toy truck with faster, new wheels or uses a different
color or brand of paint – then manufacturers need to certify again.
Certification will involve third-party laboratory re-testing of
either the new component or the whole toy.
· Finally, all toys sold in the U.S. must comply with more than 100
toy safety regulations tests, and requirements designed to protect children at
play, including the Federal Hazardous Substances Act and
the Consumer Product Safety Act,
as well as the CPSIA.
Among other protections, these regulations make it illegal to sell
toys or children’s products containing substances harmful to children and to
which they might be exposed.
· If you have concerns about a specific toy’s safety or are
wondering if it has been recalled, you can check the list
of recalls on the CPSC website.
General Toy Safety Tips
· Avoid toys with small parts that can be
choking hazards for small children.
· Toys with cords or wires can also be a hazard
for small children. For electronics, consider battery-powered toys, but be
mindful of safe storage and containment of tiny “button batteries.”
· Be careful with magnets: High-powered magnet
sets can pose a safety risk to children – toddler through teen ages. Children
unintentionally swallowing loose magnets could cause serious intestinal
injuries.
· Get safety gear to go along with skateboards,
scooters and bikes. With scooters and other riding toys, be sure to include
helmets. Helmets should be worn properly at all times, and they should be sized
to fit.
The purpose of ChemicalSafetyFacts.org is to provide consumer-friendly information about some of the chemicals that are essential to the products that people use every day.
This
website is intended to provide general information only about various
chemistries, their uses and function; it does not and cannot provide safety
information specific to any particular consumer product or chemical, it is not
intended to be comprehensive or complete, and should not be relied upon to
ensure safe and appropriate use of any particular product or chemical.
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