Key vote for Toy Safety Campaign

North West Labour Euro MP, and Labour’s Chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, Arlene McCarthy MEP, will lead a vote on toy safety standards in her Committee in the European Parliament this week.

Ms McCarthy, who has been campaigning to raise standards across Europe and protect children from dangerous and toxic toy imports, said: “Our current toy safety law is 20 years old and does not deal with the new risks and threats. In particular it does not tackle the risks with imported toys given that 95% of UK toys and 80% of toys EU-wide are imported from China.

“Recalls must be a last resort. This law needs to set tough standards to ensure dangerous toys never make it on to the shop shelves.

“Last year we had a number of toy safety scares and toxic toy headlines, first in the US and then at home.”

“Parents need to be vigilant and only buy from legitimate traders to ensure the toys in their children’s Christmas stockings are safe.”

Ms McCarthy is calling for the new law to:

Make importers responsible for ensuring toys that they bring into Europe are safe.

Enable Europe to quickly ban toys with new risks like the, potentially fatal, powerful magnets behind many recent recalls.

Toughen the rules on age limits when dealing with choking and suffocation risk to ensure no toys with small parts are given to small children.

Ensure there are no choking hazards permitted in toys that come with food.

Ban the use of allergenic fragrances in toys.

Ban the use of CMRs (substances which are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction) unless proved safe by the scientific committee and no alternative is available.