Consumer Product Safety Committee (CPSC) issued public announcement recently that ASTM F963-11 Standard will be the imperative standard on toys. This new toy safety standard will be implemented imperatively since June 12, 2012.

This new standard has amended the content limit of lead in toy paintings or toy fundamental materials. This is similar to EU standards EN71-3 and ISO8124-3, which added new requirements for dissolvable heavy metal elements in the touchable toy fundamental materials. Further, according to the latest testing methods issued by CPSC, the content of dissolvable cadmium in the metal toy or metal toy component, which is classified, as tiny part may not exceed 200ug. Other new requirements also added for bath toys, pressing and sounding toys, ride-on toys, toy chairs and toy filling materials and new rules have been added on the potential safety risks of toys.

Accordingly, inspection and quarantine authority have three pieces of suggestions: first, toy enterprises shall highlight new requirements and new standards, send their products to a qualified laboratory to have tested in accordance with the new requirements and new standard, so as to guarantee that products fulfill the requirements of the new legal regulations; second, toy enterprises shall strengthen management on the key sections such as the high-risk raw materials and supplementary materials, identification of first piece of product, product design, control of inspection needle and so on and shall establish and improve tracing management system of toy products; third, toy enterprises shall pay attention to the law and legal regulations in European countries and the United States.