Migration of Eight Harmful Elements from Metal Accessories That Infants May Swallow by Mistake

Abstract

The International Standard ISO 8124-3:2010 "Safety of toys--Part 3: Migration of certain elements" controls the levels of migrated eight harmful elements (antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium) from infants toys. Moreover, the Japanese Food Sanitation Law controls the levels of migrated lead from metal accessory toys. However, the levels of migrated harmful elements from metal accessories that are not infants toys are not controlled, since they are not covered by the ISO Standard or the Food Sanitation Law. Therefore, we investigated the level of eight harmful elements migrated from metal accessories that infants may swallow by mistake. The extraction test of ISO 8124-3:2010 was executed in 117 products (total 184 specimens), and the concentration of these eight elements was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). As a result, 28 and one products released lead and cadmium beyond the maximum acceptable levels of the ISO standard, respectively. Metal accessories that infants may swallow by mistake should ideally not release harmful elements such as lead and cadmium.