Toy safety

Toy safety is the practice of ensuring that toys, especially those made for children, are safe, usually through the application of set safety standards. In many countries, commercial toys must be able to pass safety tests in order to be sold. In the U.S., some toys must meet national standards, while other toys may not have to meet a defined safety standard. In countries where standards exist, they exist in order to prevent accidents, but there have still been some high-profile product recalls after such problems have occurred. The danger is often not due to faulty design; usage and chance both play a role in injury and death incidents as well.

Common scenarios include:

Accidents involving toys are quite common, with 40,000 happening each year in the United Kingdom (according to 1998 figures - data has not been collected in the UK since 2003), accounting for less than 1% of annual accidents. In 2005 in the U.S., 20 children under 15 years of age died in incidents associated with toys, and an estimated 202,300 children under 15 were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with toys, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. In the European Union, no fatal accidents have been reported in the European Injury Database since 2002. In Europe, home and leisure data was examined concerning injuries caused by falls to a lower level among 0-4-year-olds from Austria, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden. It was found that children′s use of several product categories was closely related to age. Children′s furniture account for between 21% (Netherlands) and 34% (Sweden) of the injuries from falls to a lower level in the first living year, but decreased with increasing age in all countries. The same pattern applied to strollers. In contrast, injuries due to falls involving playground equipment increased with age to reach between 13 (Greece) and 34 (Netherlands) percent of injuries from falls to a lower level among 4-year-olds. Bicycles also increase with age, reaching between 4 (Netherlands) and 17 (Denmark) percent among 4-year-olds.

Distinction must be drawn between regulations and voluntary safety standards. From the table below, it can be seen that many regions model their safety standards on the EU's EN 71 standard, either directly, or through adoption of the ISO 8124 standard which itself is modelled on EN 71.

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