Regardless of the EU having among the world’s strictest guidelines on toy security, harmful toys nonetheless discover their method into kids’s arms. On Tuesday, MEPs confirmed an settlement with member states on new toy security guidelines to enhance the safety of kids’s well being and growth. The replace of an present 2009 directive is available in response to the rise in on-line procuring (together with from outdoors the EU) and using digital applied sciences. Member states and trade actors may have a 4 ½ yr transition interval to implement the brand new measures.
Stricter necessities on chemical compounds
The present ban on carcinogenic and mutagenic substances and substances poisonous for replica (CRM) is prolonged to chemical compounds which can be significantly dangerous to kids, reminiscent of endocrine disruptors, substances that hurt the respiratory system, and chemical compounds which can be poisonous for the pores and skin and different organs. The brand new guidelines additionally ban the intentional use of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) and essentially the most harmful varieties of bisphenols. Allergenic fragrances might be prohibited in toys for youngsters beneath 3 and in toys designed to be positioned within the mouth.
Security evaluation
Earlier than putting a toy in the marketplace, producers must perform a security evaluation on all potential hazards − chemical, bodily, mechanical, and electrical. The evaluation can even have to check toys’ flammability, hygiene, and radioactivity, and take kids’s particular vulnerabilities into consideration. For instance, producers ought to, the place applicable, be sure that digital toys don’t pose dangers to kids’s psychological well being.
Digital product passport
The brand new guidelines will scale back the variety of unsafe toys by higher enforcement and extra environment friendly customs checks. All toys will need to have a clearly seen digital product passport (DPP), displaying compliance with the related security guidelines. The DPP will improve the traceability of toys and make market surveillance and customs checks easier and extra environment friendly. It can additionally supply customers quick access to security info and warnings, through a QR code, for instance.
Financial operators and on-line retailers
The regulation clarifies and introduces stronger necessities for financial operators (reminiscent of producers, importers, distributors and repair suppliers). For instance, producers might be required to mark warnings in simply comprehensible language and if any toy-related dangers come up, they must take corrective measures and inform market surveillance authorities and customers instantly.
Reflecting their rising function within the sale and promotion of toys, on-line marketplaces might be obliged to arrange their platforms in a method that enables sellers to show toys’ CE markings, security warnings and digital product passports. Toys that don’t adjust to the protection guidelines might be thought of “unlawful content material” beneath the Digital Companies Act (DSA).
Quote
The rapporteur Marion Walsmann (EPP, DE) mentioned: “With the brand new toy security regulation, Europe is sending a transparent sign: security should not be left as much as likelihood. Because of clear pointers, trendy security necessities and truthful transitional preparations, corporations can plan and develop responsibly – and youngsters can play carefree. This regulation is a win for everybody: customers, producers and the way forward for our kids.”
Subsequent steps
The brand new guidelines will enter into power on the twentieth day following their publication within the Official Journal of the European Union.
Background
EU toy security guidelines lay down the important security necessities that toys should meet to be positioned on the EU market, no matter whether or not they’re made within the EU or elsewhere. Toys should carry a CE marking, indicating conformity with EU security requirements. Final yr toys had been the second most notified product within the EU speedy alert system for harmful shopper merchandise (15%), second solely to cosmetics (36%), with chemical substances as the principle explanation for threat in nearly half of the alerts.
