Five Australian states - New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, published an interim ban on small powerful magnets on 23 August 2012. In the meantime, the Commonwealth of Australia proposed a draft notice for the imposition of a permanent ban on small high powered magnets under the Consumer Protection Notice No.4 of 2012.

The Challenge:
The interim ban of these five Australian states shall become effective immediately and shall apply to any supply of the magnets for the next 60 days.
 
According to the draft and the interim ban, the prohibition shall apply to small, separable or loose permanent magnetic objects:
(a)   that are supplied as aggregated masses or in multiples of two or more; and
(b)   that are intended or marketed by the manufacturer primarily as a manipulative or construction desk toy or as jewellery; and
(c)   that have a magnetic flux index of greater than 50 kG2mm2; and
(d)   ｗｈｅｒｅ the product supplied contains more than one magnet that fits within the small parts cylinder specified in the International Standards Organization Toy Standard (ISO 8124-1:2009, Safety of toys).

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 Consumer Protection Notice in Australia. Besides keeping you ｕｐｄａｔｅd on this and other new product safety developments, Intertek experts can assess your specific compliance and product testing needs and recommend ways to ensure that your product testing programs meet the relevant requirements, as well as other international requirements, in the most effective and efficient way possible.