This document specifies methods of sampling and analysing the total concentration of the elements antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium from toy materials and from parts of toys.
Digestion methods for the elements mentioned in 1.1 are specified for the following types of toy materials:
coatings of paint, varnish, lacquer, printing ink, polymer and similar coatings;
polymeric and similar materials, including laminates, whether textile-reinforced or not, but excluding other textiles;
paper, paperboard and cardboard;
natural or synthetic textiles;
metallic materials, whether coated or not;
other materials, whether mass-coloured or not (e.g. wood, fibreboard, hardboard, bone, and leather);
materials intended to leave a trace (e.g. the graphite materials in pencils and liquid ink in pens);
pliable modelling materials, including modelling clays and gels;
paints to be used as such in the toy, including finger paints, varnishes, lacquers and similar materials in solid or liquid form;
packaging materials that form part of the toy or have intended play value (e.g. boxes containing jigsaw puzzles or packaging on which the instructions are included in the case of games. Items such as blister packs containing simple instructions are not included in this category).
Digestion methods for glass, ceramic and other siliceous materials or fluorinated polymers or fluorinated polymer coatings are not described. These types of materials are outside the scope of this document.
Screening determination (without the need for sample preparation and digestion) of the elements mentioned in 1.1 is specified for plastics using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry (see Annex B).
