Toy Slime Health Hazards: What You Need To Know

Slime products have surged in popularity in the recent years.  Thanks to its enchanting appearance and delightfully malleable texture, it's one of the most popular toys amongst children.

But recent reports have revealed that slime-based toys could be causing more harm than good.  An investigation conducted by consumer group, Which?, had found that eight out of 11 commonly-bought slime products breached EU regulations due to the amount of boron they contain, which may cause vomiting, cramps and irritation and the European Commission warns that high levels may also adversely affect fertility.

Consequently, the consumer company is advising parents to “approach slime with caution” and has urged them to be wary of homemade alternatives too, as some of they often call for borax, made up of Boron, which is often used as a cleaning product and has been linked to causing serious burns in children.

In another study by Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, they had conducted a test on 20 models of slime and putty toys to find that these toys may pose safety and hygienic risks. The migration of boron of 70% of the slime models exceeded the European Standard's recommended upper limit with the worst model exceeding more than 12 times. Moreover, 2 models were detected with total microbial counts exceeding the EU Recommendation's limit by 23,999 times and 119 times respectively. The content of MIT and/or CMIT and CMIT/MIT mixture of 5 models exceeded the standard's recommended limit. In addition, it is worrying to note that all models did not provide any information of their expiry date and 5 models failed to provide adequate users' warnings.

Since 2019, more than 100 slime toys had been recalled by RAPEX in the EU, mainly of violations in excessive boron and n-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) contents, resulting in either:

1. Ban on the marketing of the product and any accompanying measures
2. Withdrawal of the product from the market
3. Recall of the product from end users
4. Destruction of the product

As a global leader in testing, inspection and certification, SGS toy experts have the knowledge and expertise to assess your products, from product development to the assessment stage, to access your desired markets. With a global network of state-of-the-art toy testing laboratories, we can help to ensure that your toys meet national standards and qualified to carry any required certification marks.

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