Chemicals in toys

The upcoming toys safety regulation is already casting its shadow ahead.

The Digital Product Passport will ensure that consumers have access to information they need. The associated central registry will enable automatic verification by customs authorities to ensure that only toys with a valid digital product passport are allowed access to the market.

But it might well be that manufacturers face an even greater challenge in protecting playing children against the invisible dangers of harmful chemicals.

The draft regulation extends the requirements and bans on many types of chemical substances. Examples are carcinogenic and mutagenic substances or substances toxic for reproduction (CMR), endocrine disruptors (ED), chemicals that are toxic to organs (STOT), chemicals affecting the respiratory system (sensitisers) and mobile, persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals (PBT, PMT and vPvB).

Toys should not contain any PFAS either.

In anticipation of the final adoption of the regulation, several new standards related to chemical substances in toys have been published.

EN 71-3:2019+A2:2024

The main standard for chemicals in toys deals with the migration of nineteen chemical elements such as boron, cadmium, lead, and selenium. Some of the key changes are related to slime-like toys, and new calculation methods for chromium and tin.

More EN 71 standards

Apart from main standard EN 71-3, the following standards have been published in the past months:

• EN 71-13:2021+A2:2024; olfactory board games, cosmetic kits, and gustative games.
• EN 71-15:2025 *new*; formamide in foam toy materials
• EN 71-16:2025 *new*; flame retardants TCEP, TCPP, and TDCP in toy materials.
• EN 71-17:2024 *new*; isothiazolinones MIT, CIT, and BIT in aqueous toy materials.
• EN 71-18:2024 *new*; phenol in aqueous and polymeric toy materials.
• EN 71-19:2024 *new*; migration of Bisphenol A from toy materials.

The harmonisation of all these standards is expected soon.