Europe found restricted phthalates in toys, by Jairo Andrade Junior, C&J Consulting, Chemical Engineer, 2018-03-25
Jairo Andrade-Junior
Occupational Health, Safety, and Environment Manager at CBRE Brasil
Industry associations say a European enforcement project, which found restricted phthalates in a fifth of toys tested, is not representative of the European Union market as a whole.
The REACH-En-Force-4 (Ref-4), project coordinated by Echa’s Enforcement Forum, looked at 14 restriction entries in REACH Annex XVII across 29 European Union-EU and European Economic Area-EEA countries.
It reported that the phthalates Di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP), Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and Butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) were found in 19.7% of 464 toy products, and the restricted phthalates Diisononyl phthalate (DINP) Diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) and Di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP) were detected in more than 10% of toys.
According Toy Industries of Europe (TIE), the report is not representative of the European Union-EU market as a whole because the project targeted products that were expected to be non-compliant. It misrepresents the extremely high levels of safety in the European Union-EU that reputable manufacturers take great care to build into their toys.
Reputable companies invest and resources to make sure their toys are safe for children to play with, but disreputable traders often choose to ignore the strict safety rules, said Toy Industries of Europe (TIE). It said that effective and well-enforced market surveillance is essential in keeping toys that don’t meet the European Union-EU extremely high safety standards out of children’s hands.
British Toy and Hobby Association (BTHA) also called for increased market surveillance action. It said that the toys in the report were likely to be counterfeit products or cheaper copies and urged consumers to buy their toys from well-known reputable sources. It said also the European Commission's Rapid Alert System for dangerous products (RAPEX) shows that toys are often recalled due to presence of phthalates. However, these are very rarely toys from reputable manufacturers. It said also these chemicals have been restricted in the European Union-EU for many years and all reputable manufacturers control their presence.
European Chemical Agency-ECHA said the project results did not mention the quality of the products or name the brands inspected but included cheap products from street markets and internet sale". It confirmed also the inspections looked at particularly specific criteria and due to this limited scope, the findings do not represent a full picture for the entire market.
The Danish Consumer Council’s said that authorities should strike down harder on illegal products, especially when it comes to Di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP), Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and Butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), all are which are on the REACH candidate list. It said that the control of importers is insufficient, and it is not aware of big fines being imposed on non-compliant actors. It said also that need better control across Europe, stricter enforcement from authorities, responsible retailers and importers, and empowered consumers to get rid of all the problematic chemicals.
On December 2017, the Commission proposed a new legislative measure, the Regulation on Compliance and Enforcement, which it said will help create a fairer internal market for goods, through fostering more cooperation among national market surveillance authorities. A Commission said also the proposed measure is intended to strengthen controls by national authorities and customs officers to prevent unsafe products from being sold to European consumers.
For more details see the website below:
https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/26976
