Toys & Childcare | Monthly bulletin | February 2020

UK

The United Kingdom has left the European Union

On the 1^st February 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union. At this moment there is a transition period until the end of 2020 while the UK and EU negotiate additional arrangements. The current standards and legislations for the UK and EU will continue to apply during the transition period. New legislations will take effect on the 1^st January 2021.

For further general information about Brexit click here to visit the GOV.UK website.

Europe

Standards Updates

See below a table summarising the most recent standard updates and upcoming dates of withdrawal (non-exhaustive):

(*) Date of withdrawal: latest date by which national standards conflicting with an EN (and HD for CENELEC) have to be withdrawn.

Regulation proposals

Please find below a table summarising recent regulation proposals made to the European Commission (Non-exhaustive):

Turkey

Alignment of Turkish requirements with European requirements for toys

On the 24^th December 2019, the Turkish authorities published in the Official Journal Nº 30988 an amendment to the Toy Safety Regulation. The amendment aligns the requirements of chromium (VI), lead, bisphenol A and phenol with the equivalent requirements in the EU Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC.

US

New York passes Lead-containing jewellery law

Recently, the New York governor signed the Assembly Bill A6041 (S4046) into law to regulate lead content in children’s jewellery, which will come into effect on the 1^st January 2021.

The law defines the age of children as under 12 years old and also provides the definition ofjewellery. Also, this act amends the environmental conservation law to require a warning statement on jewellery with lead content greater than 40 parts per million (ppm) but less than 600ppm or a lower standard for lead content as may be established by federal or state law or rule.

The warning statement for children's jewellery shall contain the following:

"WARNING: CONTAINS LEAD. MAY BE HARMFUL IF EATEN OR CHEWED. COMPLIES WITH FEDERAL STANDARDS."

The label shall be placed on the jewellery itself or on its immediate packaging.

Inaccessible component of the children's jewellery are exempted from the warning requirement. And the exempted components from third-party testing under Consumer Product Safety Commission, are also not covered by this law.

Please click here for more information.

Standards Updates

See the below table summarising the most recent ASTM standards updates:

China

China published or updated GB Standards

On the 31^st December, 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) approved and released a total of 169 GB standards; some of them are closely related to our testing industry.

Toys:

The complete update can be found here (in Chinese).

International

Upcoming dates of application

As a reminder, below is a summary table of the standards and legislation that will come into effect within the next six months and which will require application:

• Standards:

• • On the 31^st May 2020, the standards EN 1130-1:1996 and EN 1130-2:1996 will be replaced by the new European standard EN 1130:2019, Children's furniture - Cribs - Safety requirements and test methods

• Legislation:

Manufacturers and importers should carefully consider these upcoming application dates and confirm that their products comply with these restrictions:

• • Europe: European Regulation (EC) No 278/2009 - Ecodesign requirements for no-load condition electric power consumption and average active efficiency of external power supplies
    The scope of this Regulation is Toys - Electrically and Battery operated toys/ RC Toys (Radio Control).
    According to Article 8 to Regulation (EU) 2019/1782, Regulation (EC) No 278/2009 is repealed as from 1 April 2020.
    

• • Switzerland: SR 817.023.11 Swiss Toy Safety Ordinance
    Toys which do not comply with the requirements of Annex 2, chapter 3 from the modification AS 2019 3367 of October 23, 2019 (chemical properties: the migration requirements for nitrosamines (less or equal to 0,05 mg/Kg) and for nitrosatable substances (less or equal to 1.0 mg/kg) apply to toys for children under 36 months and in other toys intended to be placed in the mouth; strengthening the migration limit for chromium (VI) from 0.2 mg/kg to 0.053 mg/kg in scraped-off (category III) toy materials (not updated in the standard EN 71-3:2013+A3:2018) and phthalates (expanding the requirement of less or equal 0.1% for the sum of three phthalates (BBP, DBP and DEHP) to four phthalates (BBP, DBP, DEHP and DIBP) ), can still be imported, manufactured, labeled and delivered to consumers until 31st May 2020.

Product Recalls / Alerts

Below you will find a monthly summary table of product recalls and alerts in Europe (Source “RAPEX”) and in the US (Source “CPSC”).

Europe

RAPEX (European Commission Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products – Alerts reported by EU national authorities).

The following 29 alerts regarding Childcare articles, equipment and toys have been reported, from week 1 until week 3 of 2020.

US

From the 21^st December 2019 to the 20^th January of 2020, CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) has published the following recalls: 2 recalls regarding Childcare and children’s products.