New ISO 8124-6 – Toy Safety – Phthalate esters

Toy safety is a top concern and over time the standards in this area have gained wide acceptance.  Concurrently, regulatory requirements have multiplied, providing manufacturers with the challenging task of meeting diverse requirements for products with a short shelf life.  Now to assist in meeting conformity assessment requirements, ISO 8124-6, “Safety of toys – Part 6: Certain phthalate esters in toys and childrens products,” has been released.  Based on the GB/T 22048 (available in Chinese language only), the standard does not set limits for the inclusion of phthalate esters.  Rather it provides you with a method for determining how much of the various kinds of phthalate esters exist in toys and children’s products.

Phthalate esters themselves are used in plastics to provide greater flexibility and improved ability to hold color and/or fragrance.  They actually have a weak bond, so they are one of the major plastics pollutants in the environment.  Although they have not been shown to be toxic, there is concern that over time exposure can have negative effects (both developmental and reproductive).  Because of this, various jurisdictions have enacted regulatory limitations on the inclusion of these substances in children’s products.

As a toy manufacturer or distributor, you’ll rely on the use of the ISO 8124-6 to test your product(s).  It’s basically a process when a small piece of the item is processed for determination of phthalate esters both qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry.   The standard covers the reagents, apparatus, selection of the test portion and the procedure, calculation, quality control, precision and the test report itself.

There are an additional six Annexes.  Annex A contains the only required material — A table of the various kinds of phthalate esters themselves.  While the remaining five Annexes are informative, they are actually quite technical and provide essential information for the successful use of the standard.  A 12-item bibliography finishes out the document.

The new ISO 8124-6 is the 5th part of the series to be published.  The balance of the series (both available and in process) are:

• ISO 8124-1, Safety of toys – Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties
• ISO 8124-2, Safety of toys — Part 2: Flammability
• ISO 8124-3, Safety of toys Part 3: Migration of certain elements
• ISO 8124-4, Safety of toys — Part 4: Swings, slides and similar activity toys for indoor and outdoor family domestic use
• Proposed ISO 8124-5, Safety of toys — Part 5: Determination of total concentration of certain elements in toys
• Proposed ISO 8124-7, Safety of toys — Part 7: Requirements and test methods for finger paints
• ISO/TR 8124-8 (Just released!), Safety of toys — Part 8: Age determination guidelines

You’ll need a copy of the new ISO toy safety standard, and you can purchase an authorized copy from Document Center Inc.  You’ll have the option of getting it in paper format, as a pdf download, or for multi-use access in our Standards Online subscription service.  Order through our website, www.document-center.com.  Or contact our staff by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).

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