Toy Industry Association

Toy Industry Association Hard at Work to Ensure Safe Toys for US Kids

The safety of toys imported to the United States from China has been much in the news since the middle of last year, with toy brands undertaking voluntary recalls of some one percent of toys sold in the US last year. With the safety of children as our industry’s number one priority, these recalls sounded an alarm to which the industry responded immediately. While the US toy industry has for years prided itself on establishing the benchmark toy safety standards for the world, these recalls indicated that a break had occurred in the testing and inspection systems established to confirm compliance with those standards.

The Toy Industry Association (TIA) resolved at once to identify and put into place a long-term solution to this issue that would allow parents to be reassured that toys sold in the US are safe. TIA knew it couldn’t accomplish this on its own and called upon partners from all across society to help them reach that solution. Here is what they have been doing, starting last August.

Working with the US Congress and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), pushing to develop uniform, comprehensive, federal legislation that would provide increased funding and authority to the CPSC, make testing for conformance with toy safety standards mandatory and require that a product certification program be created.Status: Legislation has now passed both houses and is scheduled to go to Conference shortly to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The toy industry has been urging Congress to move the bill forward expeditiously.
Working with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), to develop a Toy Safety Certification Program (TCSP) that will ensure products are carefully tested for conformity to safety standards. The TSCP has three key requirements for certification: 1) a risk analysis conducted on new toy designs; 2) testing of product conformity to US standards by an accredited laboratory; and, 3) auditing of the safety and quality assurance processes used by the factory producing the toy.

Founded in 1918, ANSI is a multi-stakeholder, consensus driven standards and conformity assessment organization that is actively engaged in accrediting programs that assess conformance to safety, quality and environmental standards.Status: The programs have been developed through the ANSI process and approved by the TIA Board. Work has now begun on implementation of the program in the field and in 2009 it is expected that the program will include a product certification mark that will signal to consumers that products that bear the mark have successfully met the program’s requirements.

Undertaking a public education program in the US to ensure that there is open and complete communication to all interested parties about the steps industry is taking.Status: Established the http://www.toyinfo.org/ consumer website, with information on toy safety and what the industry is doing. Information is also available at http://www.toyassociation.org/, click on “Toy Safety.” A more comprehensive communications program will begin shortly, as plans for toy safety certification are implemented.

Working with Chinese authorities to help establish stronger in-country testing protocols and inspections for toys intended for export anywhere. Status: AQSIQ, the Chinese equivalent of the US CPSC, has been diligent in insisting upon, and inspecting for conformity with, toy safety standards, particularly as regards the use of lead paint.

These are in addition to TIA’s long-standing programs, which include:

Supporting its members, North American manufacturers and importers, as they strengthen their own safety compliance activities.
Leading the development of international toy safety standards, as TIA has done since the 1930s, in its ongoing effort to ensure that US risk-based standards are first-rate and consumers are safe.

Conducting toy safety seminar programs in China for factory managers, as in the past 11 years, to educate management of the factories producing for the U.S market on compliance with US standards.

Working with US and Chinese government regulatory authorities to ensure that regulatory requirements and voluntary standards complement each other and achieve the desired product safety.

Children are the principal consumers of the products the US toy industry markets and are the industry’s only reason for being. The US toy industry remains fully committed to the safety of children and will do whatever is necessary to correct current safety issues so that the products it markets live up to the standards it has set for them.