Toy Safety Standards Improved With House Bill

August 2008

Determining the safety of your child's toys may have just gotten easier. After the recalls of 45 million hazardous toys last year, the House voted to pass a bill that would improve the safety standards of children's products, including banning lead and other dangerous chemicals from toys for children 12 or younger.

In addition to the ban on lead, children's products containing six types of phthalates, chemicals found in plastics that may pose health dangers, will also be banned. Furthermore, the bill will grant greater authority to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which was criticized last year for its handling of millions of products from China that were found to be dangerous.

The legislation also aims to improve rules for testing children's products, implementing a third-party testing system for many toys before they are sold. This testing procedure will be managed by the CPSC, which would make sure testing labs meet specific standards before a product is certified.