CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND RETAIL E-SSENTIALS

EU: Toy finger paint standard EN 71-7:2014+A3:2020 published 

MAY 2020 – RELEVANT FOR: TOYS AND CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS

On 8 April 2020, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) published the standard EN 71-7:2014+A3:2020¹. All members of the CEN have to adopt and publish their national standard within six months. The current version, EN 71-7:2014+A2:2018 continues to provide presumption of conformity to the EU Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC until the new version has been harmonised. 

The current version of EN 71-7 was harmonised in 2018²; its reference was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) with a note stating that the maximum concentration allowed for preservative climbazole (CAS# 38083-17-9) is 0.2% instead of 0.5%, as stated in Annex B of the standard. The main purpose of this amendment is to adapt this value in the standard.

Climbazole is commonly used as preservative in leave-on cosmetic products and as anti-dandruff agent in rinse-off hair products. It has been reported as harmful to human health and toxic to the aquatic life. Its endocrine-disrupting properties are also under assessment. At present, climbazole is restricted from being used as preservative in face cream, hair lotion and foot care products with concentration more than 0.2%. Considered that the exposure scenario for finger paints and cosmetics is similar, the requirement under the Cosmetics Regulation has been taken into account for setting the limit values for finger paint.

Other modifications made in the standard are mainly editorial corrections, including:

• “Benzo[α]pyrene” is replaced by “Benzo[a]pyrene” in the whole document;
• The Food Additives Directive is updated from “Directive 2008/128/EC” to “Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012”, changes are made in Annex A and Bibliography;
• In Annex F.6, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) of impurity Benzo(a)pyrene is changed from 0.02 mg/kg to 0.05 mg/kg, which is the limit specified in Clause 4.5.2.

[1] EN 71-7:2014+A3:2020 

[2] EU Commission approves new harmonised standards for toys, August 2018