Paint suitable for Children's toys?

[flanajb]

Hi,

I have some Children's toys that I have made and need to spray before selling them on ebay. The toys are for Children > 6 years of age and so far I have primed them with Morell's water based primer and was hoping to use the Morell's water based pigmented laquer for the top coat.

I just wanted to ask, whether Morell's paint is suitable for Children's toys or do I need special paint?


Thanks

 

[Noggsy]

I ant help you, but it's a good question as I intend to make some items for my niece. I look forward to the answer...

 

[EssexChris]

Paint finishes for toys should be compliant with EN71.

One company that manufactures to this specification is:-

ECOS Organic Paints.
http://www.ecosorganicpaints.co.uk/store/eco-friendly-nursery-paint-uk/prod_106.html

They may have more compliant finishes in the range now, I have found their tech department helpful in the past.

Chris

 

[flanajb]

Paint finishes for toys should be compliant with EN71.

One company that manufactures to this specification is:-

ECOS Organic Paints.
http://www.ecosorganicpaints.co.uk/store/eco-friendly-nursery-paint-uk/prod_106.html

They may have more compliant finishes in the range now, I have found their tech department helpful in the past.

Chris

That does seem a tad pricey. £48 / litre :shock:

 

[pip1954]

if you ring your local morrels they will tell you what you need, they are very helpful.
pip

 

[flanajb]

if you ring your local morrels they will tell you what you need, they are very helpful.
pip

On reflection, that should have been my first port of call.

 

[hopester101]

Hi OP

I have just started doing something similar but thought I would give you some words of advice.

I made a painted toy castle/ fort for my little boy who turned 3 recently, and then put some pics on Ebay to see if there was a market for more. Was inundated with requests from people who said my craftmanship was fantasic, and I have some orders, but I spoke to Trading Standards at lunchtime today who said basically that I was breaking the law.

All toys handmade for sale whether its 1 or 1000 and wooden toys or soft animals etc. have to be tested, accredited, insured, CE marked and have manufacturer details on them, otherwise you could be liable for huge fines, legal action under European Law. It costs around £1000 to even start the testing procedure.

To be honest I was gutted, its pretty much stopped my idea before its even begun. I was only planning on making 1 or 2 a month for a bit of spare money. I talked through all the possible routes of selling and he even said using Ebay doesn't mean you are exempt from the law. Not sure if it was just scare stories but he was nice enough and really helpful so I guess not.

Just thought I'd share this info, seeing as it happened today and I was looking for advice and found this forum, so hi

 

[johnwc812]

Hi
This is on the Welsh trading standards web site:
I make simple wooden toys, which I sell at craft markets, I know that they are safe, but do I need to have them tested?

No, but you do need to make sure that they are safe. Usually hand-made wooden toys are safe as each one is carefully made and all splinters and rough edges are smoothed away. Some simple wooden vehicles have been shown to be unsafe in the past because the wheels can be easily removed and they then present a choking hazard to small children. You may need to have your wheels tested. You will also need to make sure that any paints and varnishes you use are suitable for use on toys.

All toys that you supply in the course of a business must be marked with the name and address of the manufacturer or importer, and the CE mark. The CE mark is a declaration by the manufacturer or importer that the toy is safe and these marks must be on the toy or its packaging, and be permanent and easy to read. On small toys these marks may be on a label attached to the toy, an accompanying leaflet or an associated display box.

Not quite as Draconian as first appears.
John

 

[=Adam=]

This is very interesting as I want to start making some spinning tops to sell at craft fairs!

With regards to the CE mark, can I just put one on them or do I need to pay a fee/membership to do so or does the work need to be examined before hand?

Thanks.

 

[mickthetree]

very interesting thread, would also be interested to hear if you can just make your own labels or if you need to pay a fee etc.

 

[johnwc812]

My guess, and it is only a guess, If you take all reasonable safety advice. Print out the Welsh trading standards on-line article for future ref.
Keep copies of paint manufacturers info.
You should be OK to just add the CE label.
But a visit to the Trading Standards office would be the best way forward.
At least you are in Wales but I assume all the UK is the same.
Cheers John

 

[hopester101]

In what I have read and what I learned from the conversation the CE mark is granted once your item has passed testing, like a Kite mark or Corgi (GasSafe) registration for other walks of life. Otherwise people would just be printing off CE marks off Google images! I would assume that using the CE mark without approval would probably carry heftier fines than not to be honest, but thats just personal opinion. Wouldn't that be like just making up and adding "Approved by xxx" or the British Standard kite mark to products yourself, surely that's fraud/ deception?

Is the Welsh website you looked at definitely a current page? Reason I ask is that the law changed Europe-wide in June or July last year (yes I've been busy reading), before this date you could self-certify items for sale as long as you could show you had shown diligence to make them safe, but this changed last year when ALL items that are either classed as toys, aimed at anyone under 14 or destined to be used by children (whether its cuddly bears or wooden blocks) must be tested by an official body and meet BS EN71: Parts 1-3. The guy was telling me this prevents people suing the maker or the maker being found to be breaking the EU law. And that counts whether you are making at home, as a business, selling at craft fairs, ebay, shops etc etc... and thats before you even start with product and public liability insurance.....

I sound like I know what I'm talking about but I've just done a lot of reading in the last few days and the phonecall today really tore the guts out of my plans

To be honest though, my view is they cant police everyone, and if the "business" as it were is fairly low key I think you'd stay under the radar. If you make sure your items are safe then there shouldn't be any problem.

Its when something does happen, (god forbid) a child gets hurt or ill, first thing the parents do is contact you and solicitors and they find out you haven't been the right side of the law or faking a CE logo.... well, you can imagine.

Sorry to join a really good forum with such a crap and depressing topic but I feel its hugely valid potentially for you/ us all!

The guy at Trading Standards emailed me a load of info about it today, and happy to forward on to any interested people on here. Just drop me a PM with your email address and I'll ping over to you.

On the plus side its sunny outside :|

Cheers, Chris

 

[tomatwark]

You can self certify your toys.

http://www.conformance.co.uk/directives/ce_new_toys.php

But you will still need public and product liability insurance, but any business who does not have this anyway is taking a large risk in this no win no fee culture we live in.

Tom

 

[hopester101]

Thats a great link and I've read a lot of that, thank you, need to read it all over again. However to summarise it seem you can still self certify (I think!) as long as you meet the requirements of the directive.

Seems to me like a huge grey area and unless your sole income is a toy making business and you rely on this then it seems like overkill just to sell a few bits at craft fairs, on ebay etc.

Very interesting reading though and something to bear in mind!

 

[Jonzjob]

I haven't made toys or crossed swords with TS for about 13 years now, but then CE marking was definately self certified and you had to keep record of what testing you did on what toys. You also had to have a little jig that you used to try to put any small item through. If it went through the hole and was not firmly attached to the toy then it didn't meet the requirement.

I found this site that may bring things up to date

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies ... cemarking/

 

[mac1012]

i spoke to a company from web that i am chasing up they quoted me a price of 200 pounds to test toys and get the en71 and you just deliver them to their testing place the tests arent as overkill as you might think they were quite helpfull.

the difficulty is you have to demonstrate (to yourself ) that each toy is made to the same quality control otherwise your en71 wouldnt be worth the paper its written on for example you get it tested and it passess but the next one you dont glue as good and a child chokes on the piece only hypothetcally speaking you would still be liable so it kind of well what was the point of doing it ?

i have mislaid there detaails when i track them down i let you know