USE OF JMB CADMIUM
PIGMENTS IN TOYS
The use of inorganic pigments in plastics for toys is currently controlled in
the EU by the standard EN 71 part 3 (1995), as amended. This standard may have
be revised now that the updated toy safety Directive has been published (see
below).
New Directive
The original EU Directive covering toy safety (1988/378/EEC) has recently been
updated - driven at least partly by the evidence of poor control by American
companies of their products manufactured in China. The new Directive is
2009/48/EC and a copy can be downloaded by clicking here (37 pages, approx. 1MB).
Application
The polymer used for the toy must not be one of those restricted under the
former Directive 91/338/EEC (now replaced by a word-identical entry in Annex
XVII of REACH) - please see the information sheet covering this by
clicking here.
As regards chemicals, the new Directive bans the use of substances in toys which
are classified as "CMR" in the REACH-sense. This covers the use of carcinogens
(categories 1 and 2), mutagens (category 1 and 2) or
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COMMENTS BELOW ARE BASED ON THE VERSION OF EN 71 CURRENT AT
THE TIME OF WRITING (OCTOBER 2009)
EN 71 refers specifically to tests carried out on finished toys as the only way
to demonstrate compliance with the EU "Toys Directive". This is necessary as
the test involves leaching the pigmented plastic with dilute acid : the use of
excessive temperatures or processing aids incompatible with the polymer could
lead to degradation giving rise to higher extraction levels.
Pigment customers often need to know if JMB cadmium pigments are suitable for
use in toys therefore, as a guide, we have carried out a series of extraction
tests using various polymers and our full-strength yellow 201 at 1% loading and
full-strength red 210 at 0.5%. The extraction result ranges for all the
polymers tested (8 tests in each of five polymers) are shown in the table
below:
Yellow 201 @ 1 %
Cd Se
1 - 6 N/A
Red 210 @ 0.5 %
Cd Se
0.5 - 7 0 - 5.5
All these results are in mg Cd / kg of pigmented polymer
The results should be compared with the limits for extractable metals from toys
quoted in table 1 of EN 71 part 3 :-
cadmium 75 mg / kg
selenium 500 mg / kg
The elements antimony, chromium, lead and mercury are invariably present at very
low levels in the raw materials used by JMB : they will therefore be present at
these very low levels in the finished pigment and will be well below the EN 71
extraction limits in the final pigmented polymer.
Please note that this information refers only to the use of JMB cadmium pigments in plastics for toys. Further information is available from our technical
service department.
Please also note that, although we give this information in the belief that it
is complete and accurate, final responsibility for complying with all legal
requirements always remains with the end-user.
Page last updated 25/7/11
