EU publishes amended toy directive lowering chromium VI limit

Deadline for member states to adopt changes November 2019



The European Commission has published its amended toy safety Directive, which lowers the migration limit for chromium VI in scraped-off toy materials, such as paints, hard and soft polymers, wood and textiles.

The current limit value of 0.2mg/kg is reduced to:

0.02mg/kg in dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material;
0.005mg/kg in liquid or sticky toy material; and
0.053mg/kg in scraped off toy material.
Member states must adopt these changes by 18 November 2019.

The Commission notified the WTO of its plans to amend the limit in September last year.

The adopted levels are higher than those in the final opinion of the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (Scher) in early 2015.

At the time it proposed the following limits:

0.0008mg/kg in dry (powder-like or pliable) toy materials;
0.0002mg/kg in liquid or sticky toy materials; and
0.0094 mg/kg in scraped-off toy materials.