The European Parliament, the Commission and the Member States reached an agreement tonight on Thursday, April 10 at night to ban “eternal pollutants” (PFA) and endocrine disruptors in toys by 2030 to protect children.
After this commitment, this new regulation must be subject to formal adoption in the coming weeks.
The prohibited text in four and a half years, marketing within the European Union of toys that contain dangerous chemicals, endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol A and PFA.
Today, “these substances can be found, for example, in bath toys, beach games or dentition rings, and enter the body of children with contact with the mouth, with the skin or the respiratory tract,” emphasizes the MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew).
A four -year period for manufacturers to adapt
Allergenic aromas will also be prohibited in toys that can go to the mouth of children under 36 months. The four and a half years left to manufacturers must allow them to adapt. And the prohibition will not apply to certain inaccessible components for children.
“The new toy security regulations send a strong signal: for the protection of our children” and “for fair competition” with countries like China, it estimates that the German Eurodiput Marion Walsmann (PPE, right), which took the text to Parliament.
“Although the European Union already has the safer toys in the world, one in five products classified as dangerous and retired from the market in the EU was a toy,” he said.
The European Commission has promised at the end of the year a proposal to more generally review its legislation on chemicals (scope).
The European commissioner in charge of the environment, Jessika Roswall, also intends to put a proposal on the table in 2026 to ban PFA in current consumption objects. According to Pascal Canfin, the “commission drags its feet” on these issues.
“It would be better a transverse text” of the commission to prohibit more widely to the PFA, but “for lack of better, we do it in a sectoral way (in toys), because we will not expect a text that does not happen,” he insists on the chosen Frenchman.
Threats to human health
The particularly stable chemicals, PFA, nicknamed “eternal pollutants”, are subject to growing restrictions in the world for the threats they represent for the environment and human health.
Several thousand, these per-are chemicals and Policuoroalcylas (PFA) are used abundantly in the industry since the mid-twentieth century, especially because of their waterproofing and non-stick properties. They contaminate water and soils “frequently”, according to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA).
Scientific work shows that some may have harmful effects: higher levels of cholesterol, cancers, fertility effects and fetus development, etc. It is also suspected that they interfere with the endocrine (thyroid) and immune system.
Source: BFM TV
