The department for market surveillance within the Institut luxembourgeois de la normalisation, de l’accréditation, de la sécurité et qualité des produits et services, or Ilnas, is tasked with testing cross samples of products and sharing information about safety requirements with consumers, vendors, importers and manufacturers.
Sounding the alarm
From January 2019 to mid-November, the body flagged 24 products that did not comply with EU regulations to Safety Gate, the European rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products. Of that number, 12 were slime toys, rejected because their boron levels exceeded permitted norms.
“We always try to see which products are in fashion. Last year it was squishy toys,” deputy department chief Luis Da Silva Arêde told Delano during a visit to a testing facility in Mamer on 6 November. To demonstrate, he shows a rabbit toy with a missing ear which has failed a test involving pulling the product with a strength of 90,000 newtons. “If small parts can be detached using this strength, it presents a choking risk,” research manager Philippe Wirtz explains. Other risks products are tested for include strangulation, intoxication, cuts, burns, contusions, and lesions.
Ilnas has conducted regular chemical tests since 2014. When it comes to toys, technicians are particularly wary of the level of phthalates, a chemical which give plastic its rigidity but can be carcinogenic in high enough quantities. Other chemicals they test the levels of include nickel, commonly used in costume jewellery and chromium (check this), which is found in leather products.
An Ilnas technician shows a squishy toy, part of which has become detached, posing a choking hazard. Photo: Mike Zenari
Selecting products
The surveillance team selects products for testing by entering stores and selecting them based on their own doubts and regulation know-how and notifying the manufacturer or importer. “If we find a non-conformity, we try to find a solution. It could some they change the labelling. 90% of cases are like that,” says Da Silva Arêde. Ilnas notifies Safety Gate of its findings as well as the manufacturer or importer. If the latter fails to recall the product or respect a sales ban, the body can issue administrative sanctions or start legal action for penal sanctions. “We’ve not yet had a penal case. Until now, operators have respected our decisions,” Da Silva Arêde says.
Recall and destruction
Product recalls can be a costly business. Two years ago, when the market surveillance team found three LED fidget spinners did not meet regulatory standards, some 70,000 products were blocked by customs. The gadgets presented a risk because they contained easily accessible batteries, which could be swallowed by small children.
The products were destroyed, a task that was contracted to an external firm that removed each of the batteries before destruction. In all instances, the cost of destruction is borne by the manufacturer or importer. Toys make up 44 of the 105 non-conforming products that Luxembourg has reported to Safety Gate since 2005. But across member countries, toys accounted for a quarter of products found to breach safety regulations since 2005.