Everyday we bring new products into our homes never giving a thought to how they might interact with other elements in our home environment or with the people and pets that live there.

Hazardous content in the products we buy has become an ever growing concern. Governments are now stepping in with new regulations to boost consumer confidence and provide a measure of safety for the products we use. In the U.S. and the European Union (EU), governments have proposed updated requirements for consumer product safety testing. In the United States the House and Senate have passed similar bills (H.R. 4040) to update the role of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and to tighten standards related to lead and plasticizers (Phthalates) in toys. The EU has recently proposed revisions to EN-71 (standards for toys) to expand the number of metals and organic contaminants regulated in toys.

Our EcoAnalytix™ initiative is focused on enabling consumer goods manufacturers to assure the safety of the products they produce. How do we do that? Through our application focused measurement solutions developed to detect harmful contaminants in a wide range of consumer products. Our EcoAnalytix analyzers and configured systems have the capabilities to determine:

• Lead and other hazardous metals (AA) ( ICP-OES) see application note in sidebar
• Solvent residues in plastic goods (HPLC)
• Plasticizers in vinyl toys (GC/MS)
• Dyes on toys (HPLC)
• Glycols in toys (GC/MS) see application note in sidebar

PlaySafe™ Analyzer for Metals in Toys

Our PlaySafe™ Analyzer, based on our Optima™ Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES) meets regulatory requirements and includes the methodology, applications and SOPs for quick analysis. It's capable of analyzing large numbers of prepared samples from painted or dyed toys and consumer products for lead regulated by the CPSC as well as seven other metals regulated by the EU under EN 71-3. The Playsafe™ Analyzer may also qualify to measure 10 additional metals that were included in the updates to EN 71-3 proposed in January of 2008.

Contact us to learn more about EcoAnalytix and our capabilities for testing and analysis in the consumer product and toy safety arena.