Hong Kong Revises Safety Standards for Toys and Children’s Products
Hong Kong has recently amended its list of standards for demonstrating up-to-date safety requirements for toys and children’s products. The new standards will become effective on October 1, 2019.
SAFEGUARDS | Toys & Juvenile ProductsNO. 047/19
Hong Kong’s Toys and Children’s Safety Ordinance (Cap. 424) (the Ordinance) stipulates that toys and children’s products are obliged to comply with all the applicable requirements in any one of the safety standards specified in Schedules 1 and 2 of the Ordinance.
In December 2018, the Hong Kong government launched a one-month public consultation on a proposal to update its list of safety standards for certain toys and children’s products (Safeguard 158/18).
In March 2019, Hong Kong published a press release announcing an updated list of six safety standards for toys and five categories of children’s products falling under the Ordinance. According to the announcement, these standards are international standards or standards adopted by major economies (for presumption of conformity or demonstration of compliance).
On the same day as the press release announcement, Hong Kong published the amended list of standards in the Toys and Children’s Products Safety Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Notice 2019 under Number 49 to Legal Supplement No. 2 in the Hong Kong Gazette (Number 13, Volume 23).
These new standards will become effective on October 1, 2019.
Highlights of the amendment are summarized in Table 1.
| Toys and Children’s Products Safety Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Notice 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Children’s Product | Standard | Current Standard | New Standard |
| 1 | Toys | International | ISO 8124-1:2014 | ISO 8124-1:2018 |
| ISO 8124-4:2014 | ISO 8124-4:2014/Amd.1:2017 | |||
| British/European | BS EN 71-3:2013+A1:2014 | BS EN 71-3+A3:2018 | ||
| BS EN 71-7:2014 | BS EN 71-7:2014+A2:2018 | |||
| BS EN 71-8:2011 | BS EN 71-8:2018 | |||
| BS EN 71-14:2014 | BS EN 71-14:2014+A1:2017 | |||
| 2 | Child safety barriers for domestic use | American | ASTM F1004-16b | ASTM F1004-18 |
| 3 | Children’s cots for domestic use | British/European | BS EN 716-1:2008+A1:2013 | BS EN 716-1:2017 |
| BS EN 716-2:2008+A1:2013 | BS EN 716-2:2017 | |||
| 4 | Children’s high chairs and multi-purpose high chairs for domestic use | American | ASTM F404-17 | ASTM F404-18 |
| British/European |
BS EN 14988-1:2006 +A1:2012 and |
BS EN 14988:2017 |
||
| 5 | Children’s paints | British/European | BS EN 71-3:2013+A1:2014 | BS EN 71-3:2013+A3:2018 |
| 6 | Playpens for domestic use | American | ASTM F406-15 | ASTM F406-17 |
Table 1
Next Step:
Stakeholders are advised to comply with the latest requirements for toys and children’s products for the Hong Kong market.
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