Chemical toy safety assessments
PSC can carry out these assessments on your behalf using our knowledge of toy materials, the relevant legislation and our toxicological expertise to ensure that the product is compliant with the requirements of the Toy Safety Directive and that only safe products are placed on the market. The resulting chemical safety assessment then becomes a key element of your product technical documentation.
Article 18 of the Toy Directive 2009/48/EC requires toy manufacturers to carry out an assessment of the chemical, physical, mechanical, electrical, flammability, hygiene and radioactivity hazards that the toy may present, as well as an assessment of the potential exposure to such hazards before placing the toy on the market. The chemical safety assessment requires a detailed knowledge of the applicable legal requirements as well as information on the chemical composition of the toy and its intended use. While routine testing is often used as the basis for the assessment, it does not in itself satisfy the requirements of the Toy Safety Directive.
In many cases, the detailed information on the chemical composition of the toy is not always available, and in this case additional expertise may be required to evaluate the risk or likelihood of restricted or harmful substances being present in the toy. In addition, the toy also has to comply with other relevant chemical legislation such as REACH or RoHS (in the case of electrical toys). For formulated toys such as art and craft materials, a more detailed toxicological risk assessment may be necessary based on the intended use of the product.
Approach
Our approach is based on gathering all the required information that is relevant to the safety assessment, including the age grade, forseeable use, bill of materials, safety data sheets, and available test reports. Once this information is made available we can then review the product against the applicable legislation, the likely exposure of the child to chemicals within the toy and produce the chemical safety report. Unlike many database driven approaches, we work with the client throughout the process to ensure that the assessment is specific to the type of toy being assessed. For formulated products such as art and craft materials, we can produce a full toxicological risk assessment by ingredient and for the product as a whole.
The final assessment is not ‘pass or fail’ but a considered report on the risks identified, with recommendations for ensuring the product is or remains compliant. These recommendations may include testing suggestions to cover gaps in the product information, changes to labeling, or the requirement to modify the types of materials or ingredients that are used.
We operate under a strict confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement. This means that we can work with your factory on your behalf to obtain confidential material or ingredient details so that a detailed chemical safety assessment can be carried out. This information is not detailed in the final report but is referred to in summary form.
Key benefits
- Satisfies the legal obligation under Article 18 of the Toy Safety Directive
- Documentary evidence that a safe toy is being placed on the market
- The safety assessment can help to avoid unnecessary routine testing costs
- Improved material selection at the design stage leading to lower risk of non-compliance
- Safety assessments can be carried out by material rather than finished product resulting in lower compliance costs for the manufacturer
Quotation Request
We can provide you with a quotation if you can provide an outline of your requirements.
