Revised U.S. Toy Safety Standard ASTM F963-11 Gains CPSC Approval

March 21, 2012 - PRLog -- In an effort to safeguard children by proactively upgrading toy safety standards, ASTM International published and released F963-11 on December 15, 2011, which updates and replaces the 2008 version of the Standard Consumer Safety Specifications for Toy Safety. Following unanimous approval by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the updates were published in the U.S. Federal Register on February 22, 2012 and will become a mandatory toy safety standard effective for products manufactured on or after June 12, 2012.

The enhanced regulations introduce new rules to cover the plastic films used on toys, not just those used for packaging, and new regulations concerning the shapes of bath toys, in particular restricting those with rigid projections that could be fallen upon. In addition, new rules specify testing methods for compositing and metal screening in place of soluble tests.

There are also a number of clarifications and modifications to existing regulations included in the new rules, such as those for toys with spherical ends, jaw entrapment gauge sizes, yoyo tether balls, and the overload and stability requirements for ride-on toys and toy seats. Some exemptions are also defined according to EN71-1 for the soft fillings in rattles, teething and squeeze toys.

In line with rules introduced by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) the new regulations also limit the lead content in toy substrate materials and restrict cadmium and other heavy metal migration limits in line with EN 71.

The CPSC retains the validity of section 4.27 of ASTM F834-84(2008) version of the standard for toy chest requirements, because these have not been reincorporated into ASTM F963-11.

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If you require further information about how SGS can help with compliance to the Toy Safety Standard, contact:

Contact details:

SGS Consumer Testing Services
Fred Mills-Winkler
Technical Director, Toys
SGS – North America
291 Fairfield Avenue,
Fairfield, NJ 07004, USA

t: +1 973 575 5252 ext. 22038
Email: cts.media@sgs.com

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