Toy Safety: Commission limits the presence of a harmful substance in toys

The Commission has today adopted an amendment of the Toy Safety Directive to limit the presence of aniline, a substance suspected of carcinogenic properties in certain coloured toy material. The new limits will help significantly reduce children’s exposure to this substance, which is a component of dyes for textile, leather and finger paints and can therefore be present in toys. The youngest children could put those in the mouth. Today’s amendment proposes a limit of 10 mg/ kg for aniline found in finger paints, where it exists in free form, and 30 mg/ kg for aniline detected in textile or leather toy material, which is the lowest concentration at which it can be detected with a specialised test to identify the substance when part of other mixtures. The Toy Safety Directive lays down the safety criteria that toys must meet before they can be marketed in the EU. Today’s amendment follows a public consultation on aniline limits that took place in 2020. Following a favourable vote by the Toy Safety Committee on 16 December 2020 and a 3-month scrutiny period for the European Parliament and Council, the Commission has now adopted the amendment. Following the adoption of the new limit values, these are published in the Official Journal of the EU and will apply 18 months later in all Member States alike.