Officials in the state of Washington recently passed a bill that could set the toughest restrictions on lead content in toys/children’s products for the United States.

The bill reduces lead content allowable in toys/children’s products to 90 parts per million for some products and 40 parts per million for others. This may not seem dramatic but when compared to the current federal standard of 600 parts per million it is staggering!

The state of Washington is also taking aggressive measures against cadmium, a metal used in plastics and paints, as well as phthalates, a plastic softening chemical.

This bill also requires companies to file statements each year disclosing the levels of chemicals in any of the products sold in the state. In order to do so, the companies would need to conduct testing which could cost US$500/per product/per year.

Why is this happening? U.S. states are not pleased with how slowly federal lawmakers/Congress are moving despite all the troubles experienced with product safety within this industry in the last few years. Therefore, they are taking matters into their own hands and developing their own standards.

While Washington state only accounts for less than 2% of all toys sold in the United States, all businesses involved with toys are watching closely as these types of restrictions could quickly spread throughout the country, state by state, inevitably making the U.S. market a complete nightmare for toy retailers, wholesalers, distributors and importers.

Links:

Check Toy Industry Association - U.S. Toy Industry Association

Toy Retailers Association- Europe and UK Toy Industry Association

The Toy Fair - North America’s most important toy trade show, February 15-18, 2009.