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European Legislation in relation to Toy Safety

  • Council Directive 88/378/EEC concerning the safety of toys: Toy safety directive prescribes essential safety requirements which toys must meet during manufacturing and before being placed on the market. These include protection against health hazards or physical injury in general, and risks associated with the physical and mechanical, flammability, chemical, electrical, hygiene and radioactivity properties of toys in particular. The directive also lists 21 products not regarded as toys for the purpose of the directive.
  • Council Directive 93/68/EEC amending Directive 88/378/EEC : Directive 93/68/EEC introduced a number of minor amendments to each of the directives. These are mainly concerned with ensuring a consistent appearance of the CE logo and providing for protection against manufacturers applying a mark which was intended to look like the CE logo but was not actually the logo proper.
  • Directive 2009/48/EC: published July 2009 this directive will be applicable to toys placed on the market as of 20 July 2011.

Irish Legislation in Relation to Toy Safety

The current Irish Legislation in relation to safety of toys is:

Testing

Before a product can be placed on the market the manufacturer or their authorized representative must subject the product to a conformity assessment. This is intended to prove the conformity of the toy with the essential requirements of the Toy Safety Directive and the harmonized standards through examinations and compliance tests. Currently there are no test laboratories in Ireland for the purpose of undertaking EC type-examinations on toys. However there are a number of Approved Bodies in the UK e.g. www.struk.co.uk , www.cps.bureauveritas.com, www.satra.co.uk to list just a few.

Queries & Comments

If you have a query or comment on toy safety: contact us at standards@nsai.ie

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