EU considers current toy material ingestion limits are safe

On 8 April 2016, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) adopted the final opinion as regards assessment on ingestion amounts of children and considered the current limits were still appropriate. By deduction, the limits for 19 elements in the toy safety directive (2009/48/EC) are also appropriate and require no revision.

The migration limits depend on the type of toy material used and are based on a 2008 RIVM report which assumed that a child would ingest 100 mg/d of dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material, 400 mg/d of liquid or sticky toy material, and 8 mg/d of scraped-off toy material. However, in another section, the report also noted that the ingestion of 100 mg of dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material and 400 mg of liquid or sticky toy material, although reasonable, may not occur daily, but only once a week, adding that this was a rough estimate that needed further research. An "Erratum" was added to the report in January 2015, which used the assumption of weekly ingestion of the amounts to re-calculate the derived acceptable limits, thus increasing them 7-fold. The SCHER was asked to review the available data on the ingestion of all three types of toy material by children and to consider whether the ingestion amounts estimated earlier are still appropriate or whether new amounts would be more appropriate.

The committee says that last year's call for information came up with little new information.

Considering the data base, the SCHER is of the opinion that the current estimated ingestion amounts (100 mg/d of dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable, 400 mg/d of liquid or sticky and 8 mg/d of scraped-off toy material) are still appropriate.

All accessible toy materials shall be tested for migration of heavy metals as set forth in the EU toy safety directive (TSD). C&K Testing advises toy businesses to lay more focus on news about TSD.