ASTM on December 15, 2011 published revised toy safety standard F963-11 as part of its ongoing effort to monitor and proactively address any issues pertaining to toy safety.

In accordance with section 106(g) of Public Law 110-314 (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA)) the ASTM also officially notified the CPSC on publication of the revised toy safety standard F963-11 on the same day. The CPSC now has up to 90 days, March 14, 2012, to respond to the revisions, and accept or reject revision in part or whole. If the CPSC does not respond within 90 days, or if they accept the revisions, the revised standard (F963-11) will become mandatory toy safety standard effective 180 days after publication i.e. from June 12th, 2012.

The Challenge:
The revised standard F963-11 establishes and revises many requirements for toy safety. Couple of new requirements that were added during the revision of the standard were heavy metals requirement for certain accessible substrates and design guideline to address impalement injury from projections in bath toys. Some of the other requirements that were revised were acoustics, stability of ride-on toys, plastic films, jaw entrapment, yo-yo tether balls, and toys with spherical ends (please refer to Intertek news CN-675 for more information). Are you prepared to incorporate them in design & manufacturing, and comply with these requirements?

The Solution:
Intertek, through our extensive global network, has a variety of services available to help you overcome the challenges related to complying with the ASTM toy standard and its requirements. Besides keeping you ｕｐｄａｔｅd on any new developments from time to time, Intertek provides legal, regulatory and strategic consulting, testing, and implementation programs for compliance to the new directive, enabling you to meet your business objectives.