New formaldehyde limits for toys

The EU Commission has adopted limits for formaldehyde in toys intended for use by children under 36 months or in other toys intended to be placed in the mouth (COMMISSION DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/1929). This includes a migration limit for polymeric toy materials, an emission limit in resin-bonded wood toy materials as well as content limits for textile, leather, paper and water-based materials. These legal provisions trace back to an initiative of the Consumer Council. The head of its office (F. Fiala) was the lead author of a position paper published by the European consumer organisation ANEC in 2016. This paper had suggested the adoption of similar requirements. Even though these limits do not apply to all toys (which is regrettably not possible under the current Toy Safety Directive), their adoption can be regarded as a big success for the Consumer Council and the European consumer organisations. Die Directive of the Commission can be found here: eur-lex.europa.eu The ANEC position paper can be found here: anec.eu