Toy safety
The danger is often not due to faulty design; usage and chance both play a role in injury and death incidents as well.
In 2005 in the U.S., 20 children under 15 years of age died in incidents associated with toys, and an estimated 202,300 children under 15 were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with toys, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.
[6] In Europe, home and leisure data was examined concerning injuries caused by falls to a lower level among 0-4-year-olds from Austria, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Children′s furniture account for between 21% (Netherlands) and 34% (Sweden) of the injuries from falls to a lower level in the first living year, but decreased with increasing age in all countries.
Part 4: Swings, slides and similar activity toys for indoor and outdoor family domestic use.
All European Union member states have transposed this directive into law - for example, the UK's Toy (Safety) Regulations 1995.
[13] Trading Standards Officers in the UK, similarly to appropriate authorities in the other EU member states, have the power to immediately demand the withdrawal of a toy product from sale on safety grounds via the RAPEX recall notification system (used for all products subject to European safety legislation).
Toy safety standards are continually updated and modified[15] as the understanding of risks increases and new products are developed.
This law demands all manufacturers of toys to provide the state of Minnesota with a report if their children’s products contain any of the priority chemicals such as Bisphenol A, Formaldehyde, lead or cadmium.
Some items specifically excluded from this legislation are: fashion jewellery for children, Christmas decorations, and sports equipment.
If a toy is found to be unsafe (by breaching one of the specified standards, or by a manifest risk of injury not specified in standards) then the producer (the manufacturer, or the first importer into the EU of the product unit in question) is held to be guilty of an offence under the Toys (Safety) Regulations (or equivalent EU state law).
The unsafe toy is withdrawn from the EU market, with all member states' authorities being notified by means of the RAPEX alert system.
The Comité Européen de Normalisation or CEN wrote these standards in order for them to be harmonized under the Toy Safety Directive.
From 1 March, toy producers in China have been able to apply to three certification agencies nominated by the CNCA to certify their products.
Since 1 June 2007, no toy products without CCCs has been be allowed to leave factories, be sold or be imported into China.
It is hoped this measure will mitigate the increasing international pressure on environmental protection, as well as further expand the nation's toy export market.
This is important for every manufacturer as they can be held liable for injuries and fatalities resulting from design flaws, use of unsuitable materials, and substandard production.
It replaces and updates the 2009 version of the same standard since the latter and newest has been harmonized under the EU Toy Safety Directive.
This gives a new test method for 'Experimental sets for chemistry and related activities' under the toy safety EN 71 series.
If existing quality and safety checks fail to detect an issue prior to sale, a systematic method of notifying the public and removing potentially hazardous products from the market is needed.
Choking is the number one reason for accidents, but chemicals such as lead can also cause developmental problems like behavioral disorders and sickness.
The mechanism was a pair of one-way metal rollers behind a plastic slot and rubber lips, and there were 35 reported incidents in which a child's hair or finger was caught in the mouths.
On 19 December 1988, all lawn darts were banned from sale in the United States by the Consumer Product Safety Commission after they were responsible for the deaths of three children since 1970.
[39] In 2009, Luigi Avolio and Giuseppe Martucciello published in The New England Journal of Medicine documenting the effects of magnetic toys ingestion in two children.
[41] In November 2006 4.4 million Polly Pocket Quik-Clik sets were recalled by Mattel after children in the United States swallowed loose magnetic parts.
Fairly heavy and fast-moving, and made of hard acrylic plastic, the balls would occasionally shatter upon striking each other.
Made from stretchy Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPR), these water-filled balls were weighted at one end and could get caught around a child's neck causing strangulation and possible suffocation.
[44] Using the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission[45] figures the number of annual reported child toy-related deaths and injuries, compared with CPSC expenditure and total toy sales in the US by year are tabulated below.
†Amount no longer given but combined with other categories—this is sometimes done to give an agency added flexibility; however, at times this is done to falsely show an increase in funding when there is no way to assess how much will be spent for a specific task.
[citation needed] Annual CPSC Reports to Congress containing toy-related emergency room injuries and deaths.
