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Small parts must not come loose from soft toys decorated with sequins

Publication date 25.4.2019 10.35
Press release

Soft toys decorated with sequins must be safe for children of all ages to play with. They must not have small parts that may come loose.

Recently, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (Tukes) has received many questions about soft toys decorated with sequins and their age classification. Tukes points out that due to their nature, huggable and squeezable soft toys are generally considered suitable for children under 36 months. For this reason, the warning “not suitable for children under three years of age” is misleading.

Toys intended for children under 3 years of age must not have small parts that might come loose and cause a choking hazard. Therefore, toys decorated with sequins and classified as soft toys must not have small parts that might come loose and cause a choking hazard, either.

The European Commission has also issued a notification about the issue on its website. Tukes has already distributed the bulletin on the Commission website to stakeholders.

Tukes is monitoring the situation and will carry out a surveillance project on small detachable parts in toys intended for children under 3 years of age early next year. Before the surveillance project, Tukes will take action as needed regarding products that are against regulations and cause a clear danger.

In addition, the Finnish Customs can examine soft toys decorated with sequins as a part of its own supervision of toys in connection with import as well as unloading and storing the shipment.

Further information:

Tukes: Senior Officer Asta Koivisto, tel. +358 29 5052 187, asta.koivisto (at) tukes.fi,

Finnish Customs: Arja Meriläinen, Head of Section, tel. +358 40 332 3249, arja.merilainen (at) tulli.fi

Bulletin concerning soft-filled toys with sequins on the website of the European Commission

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