Everybody’s talking about it: The great toy safety debate

Don’t worry – her teddy bear has been carefully tested.

A series of toy product recalls last summer damaged the image of the toy industry. Now EU commissioner Günter Verheugen has declared that safety is a key issue and is calling for more regulation of manufacturers and importers. Is this justified or is it an over-reaction? Looking forward, looking back.

Günter Verheugen, the German Commissioner for Industry and Enterprise in
Brussels, is calling for stricter quality controls on toys. Security: when you feel really safe.In January he proposed some draft guidelines. For example, toys containing electronic chips would not only have to be checked by the manufacturer but also
licensed by an external authority. "The toy world has changed completely," he argues. The twenty-year-old rules in Toy Safety Guideline 88/378/EEC are badly in need of an overhaul, he thinks.

Product recals in 2007

First, a bit of background. Last year toy manufacturers had to recall products from sale on several occasions. One American toy-making group recalled toys three times in a five week period because they contained lead, which can cause brain damage if ingested. Worldwide about 800,000 items were recalled (some 38,000 in Germany), including 675,000 fashion doll accessories containing small magnetic parts that kids could have swallowed. To begin with the giant toy firms were inclined to believe that the defects were confined to articles made in China. As it turned out, only 13 percent of the toys were recalled because they contained lead paint; with 87 percent it was because of design defects. And the metal parts in the dolls came from the US parent company. The Chinese authorities received an official apology for the incorrect diagnosis.

One sales firm took a million baby bibs off the market last year after New Zealand researchers detected lead in them. In November the Simba Dickie Group recalled some toy beads being sold by an Italian partner as a precautionary measure after it turned out that children had been swallowing them. They reacted before it was absolutely clear whether the same toys being sold here in Germany contained the same critical materials. The manufacturer was an Australian manufacturer, but it had had the goods produced in China.

For the sake of our children's safety we must all pull in the same direction.

Toys come from china

China is the world´s biggest toy exporter, exporting some 22 billion items every year, about 60% of global output. In fact, up to 80% of toys sold in Europe are made in China. It is up to importers to ensure that they come up to European safety standards. All Simba Dickie Group toys have to pass quality and safety tests in accordance with EU guidelines.
In the late summer of 2007 the Chinese authorities took prompt action. Over 300 licenses from national manufacturers were withdrawn; according to industry sources the figure is now nearing 1,000. Nevertheless the recalls provoked howls from consumer protection organizations worldwide, along with political debate and widespread parental anxiety. At national and EU level there was much heated discussion of import conditions for items made in China. All this might give the impression that toy manufacturers are unscrupulous money-grabbers willing to risk the safety of our children. But the facts are these:

Everything turns on quality

"Toy safety is subject to comprehensive regulation," says Volker Schmid, director of the Toy Manufacturers´ Association in Stuttgart. "The Technical Inspection Association [TÜV] reports show that China manufactures to a very high standard; otherwise 80% of all the toys in the EU wouldn´t come from there." What´s more: only a few toys are of an exclusively Chinese origin. "Most toy makers there, including 3,500 firms holding export licenses, work for foreign customers who prescribe not just the design but also the materials and primary products," Schmid explains, adding that his association approves of the decision by the Federal Ministry of the Economy to tighten national market supervision by trade control offices and perform more spot checks. Not only that, but Schmid adds: "Toy producers ought to be required to prove that they can provide the necessary quality management to ensure toys are really safe." On this basis, the association has been cooperating with TÜV Rheinland since October 2007 to train "toy safety experts". The main target is small firms, who will see the standards of excellence being set by companies such as the Simba Dickie Group.

Size does matter

How seriously toy firms take their responsibilities is shown by the soaring demand for GS-symbols, the German government´s licensed seal of approval issued after independent checks by TÜV or Dekra.

A safety test can cost anything up to 2,000 euros, however, and evidently some importers are reluctant to pay this. This means that consumers might be better advised to rely on products from the big manufacturers.

Playing is supposed to be fun!

There are black sheep everywhere

TÜV Rhineland, which performs international safety checks, uses 24 laboratories in China with 1,400 employees – and that´s just one association. In Hong Kong more than 10,000 tests are performed every month on toy components posing a potential health risk. "Product quality and manufacturing standards are rising all the time in Asia, driven by big German trade links," says Jörg Mähler, TÜV Rheinland´s Hong Kong CEO. "But nobody can be absolutely sure that there aren´t black sheep in China – or anywhere else – who cut corners to save costs or in response to materials shortages."

Consumers are particularly sensitive when it comes to goods involving children. People don´t get het up if automobiles are recalled, though it happens all the time. The Federal Automobile Office registered 371 cases in 2007 alone (342 in 2006) affecting 536,477 car owners.

Controls are improving al the time

One reason why risky goods are being identified quicker is the new RAPEX (Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Dangerous Goods) that started in 2005. Every week the EU publishes an online notification of products that might pose a risk. (http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/.../rapex_archives_en.cfm).

Market supervisors in 30 European countries report all sorts of things, from babies´ dummies to drills and from cough mixture to animal feed and toothpaste. The Automobile Office also uses this system. In Germany the reporting is done by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. But if more and more things are being reported, "it´s because German watchdogs are becoming more alert," says European Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva. It doesn´t necessarily mean that more defective goods are actually arriving from the Far East.

That´s why there is no objective reason to ban imports from China. "It would be crazy to tell worried parents not to buy any products from the Far East,"says Gitta Geue, Environment Consultant to the Bavaria Consumer Center, "because after all, we are all living in a globalized economy." She thinks it is more important "to report dubious goods whenever you find them." And "dubious" often means cheap.

That´s the real point. If you aren´t prepared to pay the proper price, you can´t expect top quality. Consumers are putting manufacturers under pressure by demanding ever lower prices for toys. But if you want quality you have to pay for it. If you want toys to be safe, you have to buy proven quality toys. It´s as simple as that.